Woolworths building scaffold wrap: Request for ideas

Theme: Expansive Greening

As part of the consultation for Sustainable Sydney 2050, a citizens jury was formed to imagine Sydney in 30 years’ time.

One of the key concepts the jury recommended was the idea of creating a regenerative ecosystem. It envisioned the City of Sydney lead the reversal climate change and restore the natural environment by giving more than it takes.

The Jury proposed the idea of Expansive Greening: trees and plants enveloping the city, its streets, buildings, rooftops, and small spaces.

We invite artists, photographers and designers to reflect on the notion of an expansive green landscape.

For this highly visible site, we want a statement that looks optimistically to the future. We seek images that invoke the feeling of life, nature and resilience.

$15,000 excluding GST will be paid to the selected artist following award of contract.

Some believe Sydney’s main thoroughfares, such as George Street and Oxford Street, follow Aboriginal tracks that acted as trading routes between farmed grasslands and bountiful fishing areas.

George Street was Sydney’s original high street and remains an important retail artery in the city centre. It connects numerous important and prominent buildings in the city. The George and Park Street intersection is one of the busiest in the city centre.

The Woolworths building experiences high volumes of people walking around and through it each day. A portal into Town Hall train station is directly outside the George Street façade and the Town Hall light rail stop is nearby. George Street is now a pedestrian precinct from Bathurst Street to the harbour following light rail construction.

The reference elevation drawings (download below) show the scale which is around 70m in width by 40m in height. The elevations are not perfectly flat, being punctuated by the stairs connecting each of the working levels. A materials hoist at the eastern end of Park Street will not be screened.

Our contractor for the façade remediation will be given the artwork to arrange printing and installation in the form of strips, or banners, on the scaffolding.

Methodology for installing the artwork:

• The image may be enhanced or manipulated by the contractor to suit the scaffold wrap. The artist will be consulted during this process.
• The image will be super-imposed over an elevation of the scaffold and divided into strips. The strips will be the same width as the support spacing of the scaffold.
• A mock-up of the image, with the divisions superimposed, will be provided for approval.
• Once approved by the artist and our team, the banners are printed onto standard beige, flame retardant scaffold wrap fabric.
• Printed banners will then be fixed to scaffolding for the duration of the construction period.

Applications must be made using the online form by no later than 10am on Tuesday 20 April 2021.

Here’s what you need to include in your application:

1. An image that meets the following specifications:
   1. The image must cover 90% of the surface area of the scaffold wrap.
   2. Image size or density: Vector images must have an artwork to panel resolution of 10%. Photographs must be provided in the maximum resolution your camera can achieve.
2. Your image transposed onto the reference ‘elevation diagram of the scaffold’
3. Photomontage of your image on the ‘Woolworths building façade JPEG’ provided
4. Your CV/bio
5. Artwork statement (200-250 words) describing the artwork and indicating how the artwork fits within the theme and relevance to the location and application. This statement will be included with the artist’s biographical notes at ground floor level of the Woolworths building.

Applications will be evaluated against these criteria:

1. Strength of image.
2. Response to theme.
3. Response to site and context.
4. Capacity to replicate and print on scaffolding.
5. Strength of daytime and night time appeal

By making an application you agree to the terms outlined in the licence agreement.