January 15, 2026
Your Pocket Guide to the New Sydney Fish Market
Planning your visit to the new Sydney Fish Market next week? Here is your pocket guide to the must-see design moments of this harbourfront seafood institution.
This Monday, 19 January 2026, the new Sydney Fish Market will open its doors, signalling the start of trade and the first of an anticipated six million annual visitors. To help you unpack the largest seafood market in the southern hemisphere, we've prepared this 3-step guide.
The new Sydney Fish Market is designed by 3XN GXN in association with BVN Architecture and landscape architects, ASPECT Studios. A catalyst for the urban renewal of Blackwattle Bay, the project was constructed by Multiplex for Infrastructure NSW.
Designed as an authentic showcase of contemporary market life, the new Sydney Fish Market integrates retail, tourism and wholesale seafood operations under one roof. Inside the open-air Market Hall (which is twice the size of the previous market) you’ll find fishmongers, restaurants, cafés and specialty vendors.
To immerse yourself in the action of the seafood trade, the adjacent Auction Hall puts the theatre of industry on display. Large screens display live auction results, and visitors can witness them firsthand from the southern promenade, which features extensive glazing that provides a glimpse into the industrial backbone of the market.
Since 1989, a Dutch clock auction system has helped move around 50–55 tonnes (2,900 crates) of seafood every day.
While the public enjoys effortless movement through a generous waterfront market, what lies beneath is an extraordinary depth of coordination that enables four levels of industrial and public activity to operate without conflict
Catherine Skinner, Principal, BVN
While inside, check out the exhibition spaces of the Visitor Experience Centre, a multifunctional gallery and gathering space designed to celebrate the history of fisheries from First Nations traditions to the formal trading market that began in 1871 and continues to today. The BVN team worked to reimagine ocean waste and reuse discarded plastics, transforming them into interior finishes, fixtures and furniture that resonate with stories of marine life and material life cycles.
Look closely, and you’ll see custom light shades Inspired by Sydney rock oysters, a family of shell forms was parametrically scripted to mirror the natural variations in size, curvature and irregularity across the oyster beds. By varying the coarseness of the shell aggregate, the render achieves various textured surfaces. Before the walls are hand-polished, oyster shell lids are pressed into the wet plaster and carefully removed once set.
If you’ve arrived in Sydney recently by plane, you may have spotted the scale-like roof of the Sydney Fish Market from the air. Weighing 2,500 tonnes, the 230-metre-long undulating canopy is composed of 594 glue-laminated ‘glulam’ timber beams 
Each pyramid-shaped roof cassette plays a critical role in generating power (via integrated solar panels), capturing rainwater for reuse and drawing natural light and ventilation inside the market. The harvesting of rainwater contributes to an overall reduction of 50% water usage, while the optimised airflow and abundant natural light help to reduce the building’s energy demands. Collectively, the roof’s solar panels will generate up to 5% of the building’s daily energy consumption.
400 roof cassettes and 594 glulam timber beams, which were transported by barge from Glebe Island.
While you’re queuing for seafood, take a moment to look up. The massive canopy above you is a complex system designed for water collection, daylight modulation, solar energy production and hidden lighting for digital art shows after dark.
Asher Galvin, Practice Director, BVN
For those looking to promenade, the markets' staircases create outdoor auditoria, plazas and pathways, offering unfettered harbourfront access, completing the 15km stretch from Rozelle to Woolloomooloo foreshore. The stepped edges of the waterfront provide a civic amphitheatre where visitors can take pause and enjoy their fish 'n' chips.
The new Sydney Fish Market is transforming an underutilised harbour area into a vibrant public realm filled with programs that attract both locals and visitors. The fish market uniquely blends a fully functioning commercial operation with high-quality public space, delivering an authentic market experience rooted in the context of its prime waterfront location while enhancing the entire surrounding precinct.
Audun Opdal, Senior Partner, 3XN
The plaza landscape designed by ASPECT Studios features Indigenous wetland flora that filters stormwater. Below sea level, design ingenuity is enlisted to restore marine habitats. 3D-printed artificial coral panels cover the tidal edge of the market’s wharves and underwater lattice structures provide new spaces for sea life to flourish.
ASPECT Studio included 87 trees, 13,415 plants, and 65 species. A fully native, salt-tolerant landscape drawn largely from Sydney’s coastal region.
The stepped plazas and outdoor amphitheatre form a continuous built landscape that threads the building into Blackwattle Bay. These outdoor harbourfront spaces are a gift to Sydneysiders and global visitors, designed to welcome all communities and peoples.
Ali Bounds, Co-CEO, BVN
The new Sydney Fish Market will offer a veritable feast for the senses. To soak up all of it, be sure to look inside, look up and look outside as you queue for prawns or sit down with your fish and chips.
BVN is proud to have developed this project alongside 3XN GXN and ASPECT Studios for Infrastructure NSW, whose investment will be enjoyed by the people and communities of Sydney for years to come.
