Hassell Studio, Pier 8/9
An open, collaborative and creative design studio in a former woolstore
10am–4pm
About the building
Hassell is an international design practice working across architecture, landscape architecture, interior design and urban design. Its purpose is to design the world’s best places that people love. Hassell’s studio in Walsh Bay is in the historic docks area that was once an industrial hub.
The site was a traditional meeting place of the Gadigal people for millennia, and a favourite place to camp, canoe, gather cockles and spearfish. By the mid-19th century, the area had turned into a thriving maritime community and surged with the growth of the wool trade. The wharf complex, built between 1906 and 1922, comprised five piers with sheds, bond stores and bridges carved from the sandstone cliff of Dawes Point. After World War II, the wharves became obsolete, as they were unsuitable for new modes of international transport. In the 1970s, they were boarded up.
Beginning in the 1980s, the wharves were adapted to provide spaces for performing arts, hotels and function centres, and have continued to be adapted for residential and commercial purposes. Hassell’s studio in Pier 8/9 occupies three floors of the wharf where wool was once stored and loaded on ships bound for Europe. The open and collaborative space showcases the design studio’s collective creativity, the original fabric of the building, and its evolution into a modern workplace.
Built
1912
Architect
Henry Deane Walsh
Alterations
Mirvac Design and Bates Smart, 2000; Hassell, 2013
Awards
UDIA National Awards for Excellence – Urban Renewal Award, 2001
Find out more about this building here
Hassell Studio, Pier 8/9
Level 2, Pier 8/9, 23 Hickson Road, Millers Point
Entry details
Levels 2, 3 and 4
10am–4pm
3.30pm
Need to know
Accessible featuresThere is public lift access to level 2 and internal lift access via swipe card to levels 2 and 3. There is only stair access to level 4
Toilets availablePhotography allowedNo photography allowed on levels 3 and 4
Food and drink availableRestaurant: Elements Seafood Grillhouse
