Newmarket

The eastern precinct, Newmarket’s first completed stage of development, unites new and retained heritage buildings through a strong masterplan. The framework preserves and celebrates Newmarket House, the Sales Ring with its famous Moreton Bay fig tree, the state heritage-listed Big Stable and the site’s mature landscape.

Its principles include:
• Celebrating the site’s landscape and built heritage and adapting them to new uses
• Extending Randwick’s public domain, including new streets and significant public open space
• Offering a new dining precinct that invites people into the precinct
• Mixing housing typologies, from smaller apartments to larger penthouses
• Incorporating sustainability measures appropriate to the entire development and tailored to each zone to achieve optimal performance

The landscape design underpins the precinct with an innovative strategy for Newmarket Randwick that weaves interpretive layers through the site to creatively tell the story of the precinct through the public realm. In particular, Inglis Park, the Sales Ring Playground, and the retail plaza have become focal points with an array of opportunities including soundscape, public art and interpretive elements.

To celebrate Newmarket’s heritage and enhance sustainability, more than 80,000 bricks and hardwood timber were salvaged from the stables and recycled, which delivers part of the urban character and site-wide patina. This consistent language in material and form throughout the public realm succeeds in establishing a precinct-wide urban design response.

The strategy borrows and bends the 120-year-old original gardens to preserve and continue the story of the site. It has retained the existing majestic Moreton Bay fig and Norfolk Pine trees. These century-old heritage-listed trees dotted throughout the precinct are an important natural element in the fabric of the site and assist in creating visual connections as part of the urban framework and landscape design response. The approach taken to tree preservation indicates the importance of the site vegetation to influence the desired character of the development. 4,500 native and exotic trees, shrubs and groundcovers complement the existing palette and enhance character.

Elements that bring Newmarket’s history to life include a timeline of pavement etchings and plaques, while colourful play features use graphics and colours to reflect the horse parade and a select group of significant horses sold on the site. An audio recording of a horse auction, recorded by the team at the last horse sale to occur on the Newmarket site in 2015, has been used in an interactive auction box play element.

Throughout Newmarket Randwick, Moreton Bay fig trees have always been a defining feature of the landscape, and the landscape strategy celebrates the presence of these majestic sentinels, designing open space with the trees as the focal point. The approach taken to tree preservation in the landscape strategy, including eight figs retained, highlights the importance of the site vegetation to influence the desired character of Newmarket Randwick.

At the core of the strategy for Newmarket Randwick is the responsibility to create an urban environment which activates the site from an economic, sustainable and social perspective, as well as providing a connection to the significant historical elements on the site. With nearly 300 apartments in the completed stage one, including Newmarket Residences by Bates Smart and Figtree Pocket by Smart Design Studio, the team has helped design a harmonious community that connects to existing schools and creates a new local centre on Barker Street supporting the growth of the Randwick Health and Education precinct. The result is a vibrant local centre that has connected a diverse community of local residents and visitors alike, and instilled a legacy outcome precedent for the site and wider Randwick LGA.

The Newmarket dining precinct, located directly off Barker Street, fulfils the function of a community square – a place of gathering and interaction. The Barker Street entrance gives a sense of place to Newmarket Randwick, activating this new neighbourhood with retail space, significant open space amenity and through site links from the busy northern end of the site. Contemporary design features and finishes infuse personality into the space. A horseshoe canopy, designed in collaboration with HDR, provides beautiful, dappled shade during the day, while lighting in the canopy invites people in at night. A water feature sits in the centre of the space as a focal point and additional lighting, canopy and lush planting, split stone and recycled paving and a variety of moveable pots and planters combine with these elements to deliver a tactile, heritage aesthetic.

Designed to be the Heart of Randwick, the 5,000 sqm Inglis Park has provided much needed accessible green space and pedestrian connections for the Randwick residents, students, staff and visitors at the nearby Hospital precinct, allowing for a range of amenity and extending the retail precinct. If the Inglis Park has been designed to be the heart of Newmarket, then the Sales Ring Playground is its beating pulse. Located under a 130-year-old Moreton Bay fig tree, witness to every horse ever sold on the Newmarket site, Arcadia used the 'bones' of the original Sales Ring, with the structure peeled back, leaving the structural pylons and roof supports to suspend the play elements off the ground. The success of the space is evident in the constant beat of children’s footsteps as they run through the different levels and then screams of delight as they challenge themselves to take their play to the next level.

With its iconic Inglis lettering, the roof of the Big Stable is ever visible at the far end of the central axis, connecting people to the rich history of the site. People have pedestrian access through the southern residential Figtree Pocket, with the gates opening to the public during daylight hours.