It’s important to protect heritage assets but sometimes just keeping them around isn’t enough. A bit like aspiring to be carbon neutral when the planet clearly needs us to be net positive, we also need to think about how old buildings can be repurposed to add new energy and new icons to the city.

This idea of Future Heritage underpins the adaptive reuse of Substation No. 164, designed by fjcstudio architects and being developed by Built on Clarence Street in Sydney’s CBD. Sitting like a light bulb on top of two heritage buildings, it is a fitting tribute to its past as an electricity substation and its future as an innovative commercial and cultural space.

In its embryonic stages, Right Angle worked as part of Built’s advisory team to help to secure key cultural tenants for the project.