The best architecture does more than accommodate a program. It can reshape the way a city meets its landscape, invite new forms of public life and turn even the most complex infrastructure into a place of shared experience. Sydney Fish Market, recognised as The Building Winner at the INDE.Awards 2026, captures that ambition on the edge of Blackwattle Bay.
Celebrating outstanding architecture and design across the Indo-Pacific, the INDE.Awards recognise projects, practices and people responding thoughtfully to the distinct conditions of the region. Within the 2026 program, The Building, partnered by OpenAsset, celebrates architecture that moves beyond function to make a meaningful contribution to place, community and the wider built environment.
Designed by 3XN in association with BVN and ASPECT Studios, Sydney Fish Market transforms the familiar typology of the working market into something distinctly civic. Retail and wholesale operations sit alongside public spaces, allowing the energy and choreography of the daily fish trade to become part of the visitor experience rather than something concealed behind the scenes. It is an approach grounded in permeability, spectacle and openness, drawing the city and foreshore into the life of the building.
The operational complexity of the market is handled through carefully separated circulation systems, allowing workers, deliveries and visitors to move through the project safely and efficiently. Yet this logistical precision never overwhelms the public experience. Instead, around 6,000 square metres of public realm wraps the building, extending its presence into the waterfront and creating opportunities for gathering, movement and connection with Sydney Harbour.
This balance between infrastructure and civic generosity gives the project its particular strength. Designed to welcome an anticipated six million visitors each year, Sydney Fish Market operates simultaneously as a piece of working infrastructure, a major commercial destination and a new public place for the city. Delivered by Infrastructure NSW on behalf of the NSW Government, it also plays a significant role in the ongoing transformation of Blackwattle Bay.
As The Building Winner at the INDE.Awards 2026, Sydney Fish Market demonstrates how architecture can make complex systems legible, accessible and engaging. Through the combined expertise of 3XN, BVN and ASPECT Studios, a highly functional brief becomes an opportunity to create a more generous relationship between market, harbour and city.
Entries to the 2027 INDE.Awards will open in early December.
Photography:
Rasmus Hjortshøj
