Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Quay Quarter Tower for AMP Capital by Danish architecture firm 3XN, developed in partnership with BVN, offers sustainable architecture through clever redesign and reuse in Sydney.

Quay Quarter Tower has recently been awarded a 2023 International Architecture Award by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.

“Our vision is to create a building that brings the synergy, intimacy, and connection to a place found in a low-rise office building and stack it into a high-rise,” said Kim Herforth Nielsen, Founder and Creative Director of 3XN. 

“By dividing the building into five separate volumes and placing an atrium at the base of each, the volumes become smaller, more intimate social environments where it is easier for employees to connect and interact.”

“This pairs the positive effects of daylight and views with social connectivity. Unlike most high rises, we designed the tower from the ‘inside out’ and ‘outside in’.”

Quay Quarter Tower, the most ambitious building designed by a Danish architect in the city since Utzon’s famed Opera House, is designed as a world-first vertical village that redefines the future of work. 

3XN’s design incorporates two-thirds of the structure of an existing building located on the site. The AMP Centre located at 50 Bridge Street which dates to 1976, was in need of a significant upgrade to meet modern market demands. 

In an act of radical sustainability, 3XN incorporates the majority of the existing structure, adding four new elevator shafts to the core. 

Given the solar envelope and other contextual restraints, the design adds approximately 45,000 square meters of new construction primarily on the north side of the building. 

The new design optimizes the embodied energy and resources inherent in the existing buildings and results in a remarkably efficient plan.

Built only in 1976, the original AMP Centre was reaching the end of its usable lifespan, but rather than simply tear it down and start over, the project team set out to reach an ambitious goal: to reuse as much of the existing building and set a lofty new standard for what is possible for adaptive reuse in the architecture. 

The new tower is an identity-generating part of the redevelopment of Sydney’s central business district, the bay behind the famous Opera House. 

The site was previously occupied by a classic office tower that no longer met today’s requirements. 

Instead of demolishing the building, as was usually the case in the past, it was decided to integrate large parts of the existing supporting structure into a new high-rise building.

Two-thirds of the beams, columns, floor slabs, and almost the entire core built in the 1970s were retained. 

These central aspects of the radical sustainability concept contributed save nearly 12,000 tons of carbon dioxide compared to complete demolition and conventional new construction tons—the equivalent of 8,800 flights between Copenhagen and Sydney.

Located at 50 Bridge in Sydney’s Circular Quay precinct, the new tower is visible from vantage points across the city. 

Responding to this singular site, Nielsen designed a tower of stacked, angled volumes that is both sculptural and functional. 

This massing ensures optimal views for occupants while also creating interior spaces at a human scale that encourage interaction, knowledge sharing, and vertical connectivity.

The 200-meter-high (656 feet) tower comprises five shifting glass volumes stacked upon each other. 

Rather than face directly into the adjacent building, AMP’s 33 Alfred Street, the lower levels of the tower angle west to capture the energy and movement from the surrounding neighborhood. 

As the building rises, the northern façade shifts to the east. 

This rotation enhances views over the Opera House and Harbor and helps self-shade the northern façade from the intense afternoon sun.

The stacked volumes also reduce the perceived scale of the building in the skyline while accentuating the “vertical village” concept.

Rotating the tower creates a collection of exterior terraces that link directly to the multi-level interior atria, which contains shared amenity spaces for tenants in each block. 

3XN’s research on architecture and the work environment informed the interior design: the new offices will support a modern work style, with ample daylight, and exceptional views of the city and fellow tenants to foster a sense of connection while promoting collaboration and interaction.

AMP Capital was committed to enlivening this part of the city after business hours. 

3XN’s design of the podium of the Quay Quarter Tower contributes to this effort by supporting mixed use of program offerings over extended hours at a variety of architectural scales. 

Conceived as a horizontal village (in contrast to the ‘vertical villages’ created by each tower volume), the podium is a porous cluster of public volumes that will attract and enhance activity across the site.

“3XN and AMP Capital have worked closely with the City of Sydney to ensure that our new building meaningfully contributes to the improvement of civic life,” states Louise Mason, Managing Director, Office & Industrial AMP Capital. 

“We see the Quay Quarter Tower as a long-term investment for both our investors and in the future of Sydney.”

The expansive atrium lobby will provide an identifiable new access point to the commercial tower, along with an expanded retail and restaurant precinct that will enliven the existing streets, new arcades, and through-site links.

The designers applied urban planning principles to the project, treating the entire building as an extension of the city. 

Expanding on the green and dynamic street life established by the podium, terraces at the base of each volume in the tower would provide outdoor space for socializing, which is rare in commercial high rises. 

A lush garden terrace crowns the top of the tower.

Architects: 3XN Lead
Lead Designer: Kim Herforth Nielsen
3 XN Partner, Key Team, Design & Execution Phases: Fred Holt
3 XN Partner, Key Team, Design Phase: Jeanette Hansen, and Audun Opdal
Key Team, Design Phase: Louise Villumsen, Morten Norman Lund, Oskar Nordstrøm, Sebastian le Dantec Reinhardt, Torsten Wang, and Gry Kjaer
Key Team, Design & Execution Phases: Alyssa Murasaki Saltzgaber
Key Team, Execution Phase: Torsten Wang and Jeppe Kongstad Hjort
Design Team: Alvin Kung, Andrew Le, Carlos Ramos Seidenfaden, Henrik Rømer Kania, Jes Tønsgaard, Kasia Stachura, Mads Herskind Møller, Maria Tkacova, Martin Rejnholt Frederiksen, Morten Andersen, Olaf Kunert, Rasmus Møller, and Sam Sweeney
Associate Architects: BVN
Associate Architect Lead: Daniel Cruddace
Landscape Architects: Aspect Studios
General Contractor: Multiplex
Client: AMP Capital
Photographers: Adam Mørk, Sara Vita, and Ethan Rohloff