Tonkin Zulaikha Greer Pty Ltd.

Old Tannery School

OLD TANNERY SCHOOL

Tonkin Zulaikha Greer Architects + Greer Hindmarsh Architects

Old Tannery School
© Glenn Macari

ARCHITECTS
Tonkin Zulaikha Greer Architects & Greer Hindmarsh Architects

MECHANICAL AND ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
Wood And Grieve Engineers

DESIGN, PROJECT MANAGER AND BUILDER
Kane Construction P/L

PHOTOGRAPHS
Glenn Macari, Bruce Usher, Nick Bowers

LOCATION
Waterloo, New South Wales, Australia

CATEGORY
Schools

Old Tannery School
© Glenn Macari
Old Tannery School
© Glenn Macari

Text description provided by architect.

The Old Tannery, a stout brick factory-style edifice built for the training of tanners in the 1930s, enjoys no official heritage status. However, our clients viewed it differently.

Kane Construction, a building company that pursues unusual and inventive building projects, wanted their Sydney office building to reflect this interest.

The main original building is two-storeyed, with robust ironbark trabiated structure, exposed bearers, joists and timber cross bracing, and handsome oregon trusses.

Old Tannery School
© Glenn Macari
Old Tannery School
© Bruce Usher
Old Tannery School
© Bruce Usher

Next to this were a few ad hoc buildings of lesser quality, with single brick skin in very poor condition.

The brief was to use the main Tannery classroom building for offices, print room and reception, which we located on the ground and first floors, and meeting rooms, two of which we housed on a new mezzanine floor.

The building also needed WCs, a kitchen and impressive foyer area, and some means of identifying the company from the street without using overt street signage.

Old Tannery School
© Bruce Usher
Old Tannery School
© Bruce Usher
Old Tannery School
© Bruce Usher

Adequate car and bicycle parking and access for the disabled were also required.

We decided to keep the main old corner building, exhibiting its sturdy craftsmanship, and to demolish the add-on sheds to make way for a new building for the main stairway, foyer, WCs and kitchen.

This new part would be in a contemporary ‘landmark’ shape, but aligned with the original building, in the same scale and in strongly industrial-looking materials.

Old Tannery School
© Bruce Usher
Old Tannery School
© Glenn Macari

It would be visually distinct from the original building so that the strong shape of each could be appreciated from the street.

The new building was conceived as a striking interlocking double wedge form, cantilevered above the remnant front brick wall of the demolished shed, and connected to the old building via a glazed slot serving as a passageway.

It is a sculptural pavilion in industrial materials: concrete finished through the centre in a double height glass lining, and clad in pre-rusted weathered metal.

Old Tannery School
© Glenn Macari


Old Tannery School
© Bruce Usher
Old Tannery School
© Glenn Macari
Old Tannery School
© Glenn Macari
Old Tannery School
© Nick Bowers


Old Tannery School
First Floor Plan
Old Tannery School
Mezzanine Floor Plan

Old Tannery School
Ground Floor Plan

Tonkin Zulaikha Greer Pty Ltd.
T +61 2 92154900 F +61 2 92154901
Tonkin Zulaikha Greer Pty Ltd.
117 Reservoir St, Surry Hills NSW 2010, Australia