Location: Perth, Western Australia, Australia.

Architect: Lyons in collaboration with iredale pedersen hook architects and ASPECT Studios.

Yagan Square is a significant project for the city of Perth and Western Australia, named after the Noongar warrior. It aims to reconnect the entertainment and cultural precinct with Perth’s CBD and the Swan River. The design team consulted with the Whadjuk Working Group, representatives of the local Noongar people, to construct a meaningful narrative of reconciliation towards a creative future for the ‘first inhabitants’ at Yagan Square. The mixed-use design concept imagines Yagan Square as an integral and active part of the city, knitted into the existing circulation systems and street fabric of its surrounds. The Market Hall building brings together over twenty food and beverage tenancies trading out to the southern Market Plaza along the desire line between Station and Busport as well as internally. Communal dining areas with natural light and openable facades anchor a range of large food and beverage providers as well as a number of smaller specialist providores within the cavernous Market Hall. A mezzanine level bar and function room overlooking the Market and the William Street Mall offers public and private celebratory spaces with a new vantage point on the city. Elevated within the historic Horseshoe Bridge, the upper level restaurants at the North Bar and Market Hall provide new and unique dining experiences in Perth.

The Yagan Square ‘track’ is a key organising device for these elements. Beginning on the new William St Mall, adjacent to the Market Hall entry, the circulation track climbs along the grass public terraced steps, under the overpass bridge before entering the central meeting space. The track then connects into the bars and restaurants in Horseshoe Lane and continues past the North East garden before connecting to the Horseshoe Bridge and restaurant on the roof of the Market Place. The composition of the extension to William Street via the William St Mall, the digital tower, the retail buildings and landscape are arranged to make and enhance connections and linkages to the adjacent areas of the city and Northbridge. Key to the understanding of the project within the city is the digital tower as a locator, a city scale icon capable of resonating further afield than just the apparent site constraints. Yagan Square will accept over 70,000 visitors a day, becoming one of the city’s great attractions.

Photo credit: Peter Bennetts.