2020 - 2022

Improved connections between the beach, central atrium, courtyard, gatehouse and Campbell Parade were at the core of the Bondi Pavilion’s 2020-2022 restoration and upgrade. The design, by architects Tonkin Zulaikha Greer, has filled the Pavilion with light and opened up views to Bondi Beach from the rear of building.

The task was made tricky by the location of a large Indigenous floor mosaic which could not be moved from its original position.

To overcome this issue, the construction contractors Buildcorp had to retrofit a large new structural device into the Bondi Pavilion walls nearby to allow for a larger entryway.

Concealed in the roof of the walkway, between the Bondi Pavilion Gallery and Bondi Story Room, is an enormous 12m long x 800mm-deep steel welded beam. A crane was required to carefully position the beam into the building in a complicated manoeuvre.

While the beam can no longer be seen, this feat in engineering was an impressive part of the Bondi Pavilion Restoration and is a key structural component to the new Bondi Pavilion, enabling the conservation of the Mosaic and creating what has been called a “new beach journey” from Campbell Parade through the Park to the Beach.

Courtesy Tonkin Zulaikha Greer Architects.