Sam Sherwood-Hale spoke to Colin Bennie, Director at John McAslan + Partners about how the practice approaches infrastructure and railways with a unique perspective that extends beyond engineering to embrace placemaking and urban renewal.

SSH: Could you give us an overview of your practice and current work?
CB: I've worked with the practice for ten years and have been involved in numerous international rail and infrastructure projects. We're a relatively small practice given the scale of work we do internationally, but I think we approach infrastructure and railways in a unique way. We think outside the context of just first-class engineering objects – it's about placemaking and the opportunities that present themselves.
In a sense, it's revisiting the railway traditions of old, where architectural wonders and urban landmarks were created. We're seeing some of that in recent projects being delivered. I'm here in Sydney partly to celebrate the opening of our work on the City Line, but also as we look forward towards other opportunities that present themselves.

SSH: Could you tell us about your specific work on the Sydney project?
CB: We were part of a competition for Sydney Central. Initially, there was a reference design, but we really challenged some of its assumptions, particularly regarding the existing station fabric. The station itself, Sydney Central, is more than 100 years old now, and bit by bit, it had incremental additions and amendments which had really diluted its clarity. It was a pretty poor customer experience.
One of our key moves was to ask whether we could turn the back of the station into the new front door and unify all the platforms in a way that hadn't happened since the station's original incarnation. When it was first opened, you could access all platforms through a ticket hall into the Grand Concourse, but bit by bit that had been diminished.
We wanted to celebrate the theatre of travel – the hustle and bustle and movement of people – and use that as a way to de-stress the travelling experience. When you're in the space, you get a sense of all the trains coming and moving, but you can see where you want to get to next. There's an abundance of natural daylight, and you can make decisions with confidence because you can see what you need to do, rather than relying on being in a subterranean environment and signage as we had adopted.

To continue reading the full RaiProfessional article, click here (p.42 – 44)