The Challenge
Barangaroo brings together commercial towers, residential buildings, Crown Sydney, a metro station, cultural spaces, and some of the most heavily used public waterfront in the country. The precinct needed a vehicle security strategy — but across seven distinct sub-precincts with different landowners, design conditions, and operational needs. A uniform perimeter-hardening approach would have been technically simple and operationally wrong. The client was explicit: they would accept a slightly higher level of risk for a better public domain outcome.
Our Approach
Core42 led the threat and vulnerability assessment independently, then defined the security parameters that enabled the Landscape Architect to lead the design response. We analysed 132 global vehicle-as-a-weapon incidents (2010-2025) to calibrate design basis threat vehicles to the actual threat profile — avoiding worst-case assumptions that would have driven disproportionate physical responses. Each sub-precinct was assessed individually using a composite vulnerability methodology, producing differentiated scores that revealed meaningful distinctions a single-tool approach would have missed. The result was multiple distinct protection philosophies — ranging from integrated streetscape protection through to total vehicle exclusion — giving the design team clear performance targets without prescribing specific products.
What We Delivered
A precinct-wide threat and vulnerability assessment covering all seven sub-precincts, and a vehicle security strategy providing differentiated protection levels with approximately 40 individual design recommendations across the precinct, including event-mode overlays for high-density gatherings. The framework supports staged implementation as the precinct continues to develop.
Why It Matters
This project demonstrates Core42’s ability to deliver precinct-scale vehicle security strategy where design quality is non-negotiable. The methodology — empirical threat calibration, differentiated sub-precinct assessment, and protection philosophies that enable design-led responses — applies directly to any public realm, transport precinct, or waterfront development where security must integrate with, not override, the place.