Auburn Arts District

Auburn NSW

In early 2015 RobertsDay and Harvey Norman (the largest landowner in the District) conducted a place audit of Auburn, a suburb of Parramatta in Sydney’s west. This revealed a lack of infrastructure for the area’s emerging creative community, setting the scene for a creative solution. 

Discovering place reveals opportunity

The findings from the place audit inspired the idea to create an Arts District on the corner of Parramatta and St. Hilliers Road, to transform the 5.35ha site into a lively creative and cultural hub.

The Auburn Arts District is about cultivating creativity to boost education and the local economy.  It will deliver artist’s studios, art galleries and performance / theatre spaces, as well as business incubators, start-up spaces and urban showrooms.

The concept focuses on creating a sufficient critical mass of creative industries and employment in this gateway location that is an easy walk of Auburn Town Centre and public transport.

RobertsDay’s conceived and managed the strategy, as well as providing urban and architectural design services.

 Encouraging a ‘live and work locally’ approach

The proposal uses ‘air space’ above the ground floor cultural and employment spaces for residential apartments ranging between 2 and 22 storeys.  The variation of heights and apartment types will allow a mix people to live and work locally, adding their energy to the area.

 Catalyst for transformation

Over time the Auburn Arts District will shape broader change of the Auburn Town Centre, contributing to the transformation envisaged by Urban Growth NSW for a new creative and residential hub in this region of Sydney.


Client: Harvey Norman Services: Master Plan, Public Realm Strategy, Strategic Positioning Site area: 5.35ha Status: Under construction


Strategy, urban and architectural design: RobertsDay Statutory planning: Knight Frank Cultural Infrastructure: Lord Visualisation: Doug and Wolf Economic: Hill PDA Traffic: GTA