AILA NSW Landscape Architecture Award for Cultural Heritage

Sub Base Platypus Torpedo Factory is the recipient of the 2024 AILA NSW Landscape Architecture Award for Cultural Heritage for the extensive reworking of the 1942 Torpedo Factory building to create a new multifunctional public space on the former HMAS Platypus site in North Sydney.

The project promotes multiple narratives that reflect the complex nature of the site — formally a torpedo factory, submarine base and gas works — and importantly the millennia–long connection of the Cammeraygal people and culture on the harbour and its peninsulas. Cultural engagement and reconciliation through design has been delivered in contemporary and innovative ways that have created a layered response to the intrinsic heritage and cultural values of the site.

AILA Jury Citation
Combining restoration of endemic vegetation, contemporary art, and imaginative heritage interpretation, the team has drawn on the qualities of the place.

The team’s collaborative approach has transformed a derelict industrial building into a compelling public space that fosters local interest and care for the place while recreating space where landscape areas can be revitalised in the future park.

Guiding the transformation of a complex site with incredible potential, the design team’s collaboration with First Nations designers has resulted in contemporary expressions of culture in combination with a playful interpretation of the industrial heritage.

Project Team
Harbour Trust | Client
Turf Design Studio | Landscape, Strategy, Wayfinding and Interpretation
Guida Moseley Brown Architects | Architecture
Yerrabingin Pty Ltd | First Nations Consultant
Dennis Golding and Vicki Golding | Public Art (Around the Curve)
SUPERSENSE | Blast Wall Interpretation
Gujaga Foundation | Community Engagement Support
Iguana Creative | Signage Fabrication and Installation
Taylor | Australia | Builder
Thurston Empson & Michael Chorley | Photos