Great public spaces don’t happen by accident.
They aren’t created by one architect. One builder. One manufacturer. One council. They’re created when all of those people sit at the same table, early, often, and honestly and design something people will actually want to use.
The new Sydney Fish Market at Blackwattle Bay is one of the clearest examples of that we’ve ever been part of.
A precinct, not a project
Blackwattle Bay isn’t a building. It’s a public place.
A civic destination. A working market. A meeting point. A place to eat, wait, watch the water, and spend an afternoon. When it opened on 19 January 2026, it opened as one of the largest fish markets of its kind in the world a stretch of Sydney’s harbour that will belong, in a real sense, to the six million people expected to pass through it every year.
[Placeholder: StraBe scope includes wharf-timber lounges, bench seating, backrests, tables and edge-detail public furniture elements.]
[Placeholder: StraBe scope includes wharf-timber lounges, bench seating, backrests, tables and edge-detail public furniture elements.]
You don’t deliver something like that with a supplier list. You deliver it with a collaboration.
3XN and BVN shaping the form. ASPECT Studios shaping the ground plane. WSP, Mott MacDonald and Northrop making it stand up. Multiplex making it real. Infrastructure NSW holding the standard, with Turner & Townsend at their side. Manufacturers, including StraBe making sure every bench, table, lounge and edge detail belongs to the place. Every one of those roles is critical. None of them is enough on its own.
Audun Opdal, Senior Partner at 3XN, put it in exactly those terms when the market opened:
“Not simply as a beautiful and functional building, but as a civic threshold where harbour and city meet, inviting movement, exchange, and everyday encounters, and giving the waterfront back to the community.”
That isn’t the language of procurement. That’s the language of placemaking.
What collaboration actually looks like
At the Fish Market, collaboration wasn’t a line item on a meeting agenda. It was the method.
It looked like long conversations about proportion, material, and how a family of five actually sits down together. It looked like trade-offs between durability, warmth, and the reality of salt air. It looked like wharf-timber lounges designed to be lingered on, not just leaned against. Bright orange backrests that signal this is a place for people, not just a place with furniture. Bench runs that follow the edge of the water because that’s where people want to be.
Louise Pearson, Studio Director at ASPECT Studios and the project’s Landscape Project Director, described the outcome this way:
“An inviting edge of water play and public art… generous seating define the harbour, while an amphitheatre elevates the public realm into a lively stage.”
That is a place decision, not a product decision.
And place decisions can only be made when everyone in the room is designing for the same outcome, a public space people love.
[Placeholder: StraBe scope includes wharf-timber lounges, bench seating, backrests, tables and edge-detail public furniture elements.]
Why this matters for public infrastructure
Australia is entering a decade where public spaces are being asked to do more than ever.
More people. More climates. More accessibility needs. More civic pressure. More scrutiny on how public money is spent.
What the sector needs are partners who can:
- Sit inside the design conversation from day one.
- Understand the architectural intent, not just the specification.
- Manufacture locally so decisions can change quickly.
- Deliver, install and stand behind the outcome long after handover.
Where StraBe fits
StraBe designs and manufactures public furniture in Australia. But our role on projects like the new Sydney Fish Market isn’t simply to supply products. It’s to help the people shaping the place achieve a better outcome, together.
That means being in the room early. Detailing with the architect, not around them. Solving problems with the builder, not blaming them. Meeting council standards without dulling the design.
Because successful public furniture shouldn’t dominate a place.
It should quietly belong.
Great public spaces are built through collaboration.
Because long after the project team has packed up, the community is only just getting started.
Project Credits
The new Sydney Fish Market, Blackwattle Bay, opened to the public on 19 January 2026.
- Delivered by Infrastructure NSW on behalf of the NSW Government.
- Architects: 3XN GXN in association with BVN Architecture.
- Landscape architects: ASPECT Studios.
- Head contractor: Multiplex.
- Owner: Placemaking NSW.
- Tenant: Sydney Fish Market Pty Ltd.
About StraBe Group
StraBe designs and manufactures public furniture in Australia. We work alongside architects, landscape architects, builders, councils and government agencies to design, manufacture and install public furniture that helps places become places people love.
Our role is not simply to supply products, but to contribute meaningfully to the making of place. From early design conversations through to local manufacture and on-site delivery, we help translate architectural intent into durable, buildable and beautifully resolved public outcomes.
Whether it’s a waterfront precinct, transport hub, streetscape or civic gathering space, StraBe brings together design thinking, technical capability and delivery experience to create furniture that feels considered, lasting and genuinely connected to its environment.
Talk to the StraBe team early in the design process to explore integrated infrastructure solutions that support your project from concept through to delivery.
Sydney Fish Market, Blackwattle Bay. Public furniture by StraBe Group. Photography by Digital Horizon Marketing.