Positioned in Moore Park, the heart of Sydney’s sporting and recreational centre, the Royal Hall of Industries (RHI) has lived a rich and colourful existence deeply entwined in the greater story of the city. Established by the Royal Agricultural Society, for over a century the RHI has been an integral part of the city’s event life. Its characteristic red brick and ornate detailing have been a foundation block of the city’s civic fabric, guiding us through periods of pandemic and war, celebration, and fun. Once a vibrant hub, age had left the hall in recent years in a state of underutilisation and slow decay.
This project is the next chapter in the ongoing life of the RHI, the opportunity to sympathetically restore and adaptively redevelop the hall into a unique world class High-Performance Training Facility. The Sydney Swans HQ would be a space which embraced the volumes the heritage hall offered and created a program orientated, like a cloister, to the traditional flow of the building colonnade, all centred around an indoor training field at the heart of everything.
The redevelopment has breathed new life into the RHI, seeing the building operating all year round with public access to general areas unlimited for fans and visitors. Outreach programs encourage engagement with local school and community groups through hireable facilities onsite and the new fitout has created a permanent home for charitable organisations, including a Life Blood Donor Centre, The GO foundation, and Clontarf Foundation to develop their community scholarships around sports and higher education for Indigenous youth.
The design team collaborated closely with the club’s players, football, medical, and administration departments to meticulously plan the internal layout of the facility. The design streamlines the players’ training, recovery and education adjacencies while respecting and enhancing the hall’s original axes and symmetry to showcase the ornate roof trusses and defined entry porticos. Traditional hierarchical barriers have been broken down to encourage collaboration across the organization through communal eating spaces, yarning circles, private outdoor courtyards and a focus on meaningful and inviting consult spaces.
The Project was the detailed collaboration between architect, client, project managers, contractors and key engineers. Working within the confines of a heritage building added several complexities to resolve throughout the design process but despite the challenges of Covid shutdowns, staged delivery, funding and scope variations, the project came within the overall budget through the effective management by all parties to steer the process.
By repurposing and revitalising this beloved landmark, the Sydney Swans HQ stands as a testament to the adaptive reuse of historical architecture and a showcase of Sydney’s commitment to both sporting and community engagement. The facility has achieved a 5-star Green Star certification.