A WAKE-UP CALL FOR CLIENT AND ARCHITECT

Promotion of Mastery, the latest Sydney project from the Crown Group, played unmercifully on its name. Bamboo forests and Japanese temple walkways set the mood in the teaser video, but the significant legacy Crown is confident the five buildings will leave is the result of a “meeting of minds” of “masters at the top of their game”. The ‘great coup’ is to have the Tokyo-based Kengo Kuma and Tokyo-born, Sydney-based architect Koichi Takada collaborating on the 20-storey Building C, a trademark theme of which is the connection of nature to residents. The distinctive plant-filled, green exterior described as being “designed to emulate a stacked forest”, exemplifies one of Kuma’s central beliefs – that “good architecture does not attempt to fix nature – instead, it moves with nature, always continuing the dialogue”.

The other four buildings (three from Takada and a residential tower from Australian firm Silvester Fuller) consolidate the design impetus behind