Starchitect Ivan Harbour on the Power of Small Spaces

He may be the architect of some of the world’s most iconic skyscrapers and award-winning infrastructure, but RSHP senior director Ivan Harbour believes small, incidental spaces can be the most important parts of a city’s fabric. “You can almost not have a space too small, as long as everyone’s allowed in it, and that’s the exciting opportunity,” Harbour tells The Urban Developer . “Human beings are drawn to activity, and if you ask someone what their favourite place is in a city, it will probably be a small space rather than a grand space. We are social animals. “Being a European, I like to sit in a city square, which is usually a tight little space with a cafe on it, and just watch passersby. That’s the thing that can make you pause and delight in the moment.” Surreptitious small spaces The celebrated architect is delighting in the moment while on Australian shores to revisit the International Towers at Barangaroo 10 years on from its completion, capping off a masterplanning process the firm started about 20 years ago. “We are interested in masterplanning—but we like to build, we’re not artists. We’re architects,” Harbour says. “We are very conscious that every line we put on paper has a cost, time and quality impact. “Everything is a compromise or a balance, but in the end, for something to be successful, everyone has to find their success in it, including the client and those who use the building, but even people who walk past the building … the contribution to the public realm is probably the most important thing of all.” ▲ RSHP senior director Ivan Harbour says public realms are the most important part of a city. Harbour says eking out incidental spaces in projects was something architects brought to the table, often surreptitiously. “A big space next to a big building is almost uninhabitable,” he says. But small, incidental spaces are generally not programmed spaces that a client would request. “The client won’t generally say ‘I want a little space where the locals can gather and enjoy themselves’. I think that is something that we have to bring as an architect,” he says. Barangaroo 10 Years On Upon revisiting the Barangaroo area, Harbour says he is “continually amazed and delighted” by the success of the precinct both commercially and socially. “It’s become synonymous with a place to get together and watch the sun go down. I don’t think any of us believed it would be this successful, it’s quite something,” he says. At the point of designing the precinct and the International Towers, a decision was made to move office lobbies to the side streets and deliver a ground plane that was publicly accessible with restaurants and retail and a through-connection to the rest of the CBD. ▲ International Towers at Barangaroo was radical for its side-street lobbies and the democratisation of the workplace. Image: Lendlease Harbour says it was quite a radical idea at the time, but it has certainly proved a successful move. “I prefer the term landmark, because most buildings are the background to activity in the city,” Harbour says. “The idea was to give attention and let one side take the attention, and then the rest would sit as background to what’s really important, which is what happens on the ground level. “Architecture is a whole bunch of compromises, but in the end, you don’t see the compromises because you are trying to deliver for as many people as possible.” The curved design of the international towers is aimed at democratising the commercial spaces and removing the corner-office mentality, Harbour says. “We put all the circulation on the best elevation. That was done for a number of reasons, but it was based on this idea that you shouldn’t privatise for specific offices to have the best views. “Everyone who is moving through the building just has to have the so-called less good view. It allows everyone to enjoy the location of the buildings within the picturesque context of postcard-perfect Sydney. “It also helped with the environmental performance of the building, putting more temperature tolerant spaces on the north side. “The curved ends of the buildings are a way of democratising the workspace so no one can have a corner office. That was intentional.” Public transport connectivity is key A major challenge with Barangaroo was the geographical step up to the remainder of the CBD, which created a natural barrier to the area’s utilisation. “One aspect of what we were proposing was that the best way to grow into this site is to be very dense and concentrate your development around the closest station,” he says. “At the time, that was Wynyard station. We had long discussions around how you could make that connection work. “If you can get a sign up and go in through a hole in the ground, then it doesn’t really matter how far it is, people think they’re in the station. That connection helps connect Barangaroo to the city through a bit of a back door.” ▲ A rendering of the Town Hall Metro station, which RSHP has worked on. The precinct is now serviced by the NSW Government’s $20-billion Metro train line and a $217-million Barangaroo Station, something Harbour believes will be transformative for the city, if it can adopt more height. “London is growing vertically, which it has to do, but I think Australia is probably a bit different. It’s so obsessed with height and limiting it,” he says. He says that planning needs to find another way to constrain development rather than height, because it encourages developers to push yield as high as possible, with less consideration for liveability and outcome. “I think the Metros will change the way the cities develop here, less spread, more height.” And it’s something the architect is keenly aware of, following RSHP’s heavy involvement in the creation of Melbourne’s Metro service. “There’s a sort of celebration of Metro … whether that’s strictly necessary, I don’t know, and maybe perhaps the future lines don’t need to be quite so grandiose, but they’re dramatic spaces,” he says. “There is a sense that it belongs, that it’s emblematic of a city … and I think that will happen in Melbourne. “Melbourne’s Metro will be grand, it has the same sort of complexities as the Sydney Metro in terms of how you are bringing it right into and through the centre of town. But you won’t be comparing the two cities, you will just be enjoying them.” RSHP has worked alongside Hassell and WW+P Architects, who have collaborated on the world-class design of five stations. Harbour says the globally recognised architecture practice is relatively small and relies on collaboration with other firms. Reflecting on his work to design some of the world’s most iconic buildings, Harbour says the most important thing an architect can do is to be human and to understand that humanity is really the client. “What I really hope is that no-one feels uncomfortable around [these buildings], that they’re more uplifting than they are dragging you down … and that they see a good result that improves their lives,” he says.

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Starchitect Ivan Harbour on the Power of Small Spaces

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