In a part of Sydney harbour historically known for its oyster shell middens, a contemporary pavilion has been fashioned from a terrazzo concrete also made of oyster shells.
Pier Pavilion is the latest architectural addition to Barangaroo, a city precinct that was named for Barangaroo the woman, a Cammeraygal leader at the time of the early settlement of British colonies in the late 1700s. This is when the shell middens were first recorded here, marking a place of continual habitation by the Cammeraygal people.
The building’s shape responds to the geometries of the area’s coves and peninsulas, and is situated alongside sandstone blocks that make perfect seating, while on the pavilion’s roof is a lush green garden.
Designed by Jessica Spresser and Peter Besley of Sydney architecture studio Besley and Spresser, the pavilion is also reminiscent of classical Greek or Roman architecture with its colonnades, repeated slender columns and a circular oculus in the roof.
And the building embraces the same democratic ideals of the early Greek and Roman buildings. This is architecture for architecture’s sake – that is, apart from shade and somewhere to sit, it has no function but is a purely civic building designed for people. “We gave the pavilion a distinctly civic feel,” says Peter Besley. “All are welcome here.”
But the most impressive thing about the pavilion is the material itself. Oyster concrete is not new, but it is a material that is not available commercially and must be custom made. Besley and Spresser spent a year testing the materials, in the end creating an “oyster terrazzo” made of a mix of oyster shells and aggregates. Testing was also difficult as separating the oyster flesh completely from the shell is not easy. In the finished building, around 400,500 Sydney rock oysters were used.
“The Pavilion references human gathering by the sea through its use of recycled Sydney Rock Oyster shells. We wanted to pay respect to the long history of oyster feasting in the area, and to celebrate the use of a recycled material in the public realm,” says Jessica Spresser.
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