Sanford Master Plan

Sanford Fisheries has occupied their site in Wynyard Quarter for more than 90 years and they now find themselves at the center of what will become a 21st century community. This masterplanning exercise looked to explore how Sanford might best take advantage of their location to tell the Sanford Story and create the world’s best seafood market.

The scheme established a marketplace at the centre of the site, anticipating the future built context of the quarter and adjacent projects. The underlying urban planning approach has been to retain the existing grid of roads whilst providing a network of pedestrian laneways from north to south. These laneways envisage a finer grain of activity separate from the roads and connect across the roads to maintain the pedestrian connections through the larger site.

The master plan design became centered on the type of experiences the public sought from a seafood market. These included convenience, the opportunity to learn about seafood, visceral experiences, a place to make social connections and a sense of authenticity.

Sustainability is an important part of Sanford’s operations. The master plan looked to incorporate and celebrate aspects of the design that contributed to the sustainable use of resources. These were to include the collection of rainwater for ice making, the exhibition and explanation of ground breaking fishing technologies and energy conservation measures.