2013 Kings Square Fremantle - Architectural Design Competition Entry

Architectural Team: Simon Pendal, Stephen Neille, Brett Mitchell, Chris Mewburn, Shane Winter

We seek a scheme that builds upon local spatial codes and mannerisms, essentially of Fremantle, propelled into a vibrant future...civic identity and public life. The idea is to establish Kings Square as Fremantle’s Binding Civic Moment. Fremantle public life is centered here, the place at which the High Street axis opens up to establish the city’s civic quarter where existing street patterns and urban grain meet. Our proposal creates a clear identity akin to the established Fremantle Landmarks... unique, particular, memorable. Two circular Urban Rooms, carved into monumental building fabric create remarkable places of civic gathering and urban connection; utterly memorable places linking Kings Square’s gardens through to the reinstated and retail focused Newman Court. The Principal Urban Room, Kings Circular Room binds St John’s Church, the Town Hall, Council Chambers and the new Grand Reading Room to form an ensemble of associated parts addressing Kings Square Gardens... Fremantle Public Life. Minor Urban Room, Newman Circular Room; Newman Court is to become a luscious landscape street connecting to the proposed Queensgate Laneway creating an intensified urban streetlife fuelled by the new dynamic retail precinct... Fremantle Magnetism. Architectural Resonance based in Local Mannerisms Our architecture, urban rooms and landscape combine to establish a lucid civic place that draws on local impressions. An urbanism that is direct in approach, elegant in solution and sustainable by nature, Kings Square should touch the imagination and elevate experience, therefore intensifying human values and perceptions of the city.