The main idea of the project was to create an observatory that looked at a city phenomenon on Sidney. The proposal was then to create the new Sidney mangrove research center, acknowledging mangroves as a important part of the ecological structure of the city, and one of the most proliferous and yet most endangered ecosystems, with a 40% of destruction of the whole ecosystem in the city.

 

Working on local authorities that shared common interests on the preservation of the ecosystem, the observatory worked on two scales, a city scale providing information on direct an indirect impacts of mangrove deterioration, and a site scale collecting information on the 60 hectare existing park, looking at fauna and flora and impacts of sea level rise.

 

Regarding the architecture, both park and observatory work similar to a mangrove root, as a part of the same structure that has a main element a series of smaller parts that grows from the main element and extends organically throughout the park. The park itself consists on series of walkways and outdoor theaters that starts from the central courtyard of the building and spreads into the site. The building itself consisted on a series of laboratories, galleries, offices and libraries, within a modular structure responded actively to the sea level rise an that could eventually get flooded stepping aside for mangrove regeneration. The building open it self to the Parramatta river and throughout a series of platforms the building takes the user as near as possible to the delicate mangrove system