Aspect Studios' 2019 AILA Landscape Architecture award-winning project, the Sub Base Platypus community recreation and work hub in North Sydney, features a shaded and seated area with a Christie barbecue, a pocket playground, and a scenic waterfront promenade.
The site was originally commissioned in 1967 as the base for the Royal Australian Navy’s Oberon-class submarines. The Navy chose the name HMAS Platypus due to the similarities between the iconic Australian animal and submarines’ underwater navigation systems.
Sub Base Platypus is now a storied location where visitors can relax with friends and family on the waterfront. Aspect Studios designed the precinct, preserving the site’s history as a torpedo factory, submarine base, and gasworks.
Materials were carefully selected to celebrate this heritage while withstanding waterfront conditions and retaining the site’s existing character. Robust, off-form concrete and gabion walls create seating edges, and re-purposed concrete pipe sections are re-interpreted as waterfront seats. Naturally weathering hardwood is used as seating surfaces.
