Ark
Photographer: Tony Miller
The brief was to design a largely multi residential building to accommodate a wide variety of apartment types and sizes, ensuring a truly varied population of residents. The increase of urban density into this already well serviced area with excellent amenity has benefited both the future and existing residents of the area.
Photographer: Tony Miller
The largely landlocked site is surrounded by fairly old, low scale retail therefore the building scale and mass had to be carefully crafted to accommodate the apartment numbers and associated carparking and retail component. The resultant building form is divided into four main components which include a podium of retail and car parking and three wings of residential accommodation above, which have varied heights.
The residential accommodation is comprised of two glass wings, to the north and the south and a central component that is sheathed in textured concrete which reveals a glass volume behind.
Photographer: Peter Bennetts
Photographer: Peter Bennetts
The very top of the central component is visually divided from below and consists of sculptural stainless steel blades which act as large scaled ornament in the skyline. The creation of this skyline identity and urban legibility references existing Richmond landmarks such as the Pelaco sign and Richmond Town Hall.
At the Bridge Road frontage the language of the retail façade with its frieze of deep slices through its heavy upper band aligns with the chiaroscuro of the existing Victorian facades with their deep punctures and rhythms.
The decision to plan the main residential entry at the end of the laneway accessed from Bridge Road has facilitated a regeneration of the laneway with activation and future retail use. It has also enhanced the future potential link into a neighbouring retail complex and brings to the fore the use of Richmond laneways.
The development was extremely successful in the marketplace, providing a desired quality architectural product for future residents at a cost that was achievable thanks to a collaborative team of consultants and builders.v
Photographer: Tony Miller
Photographer: Tony Miller
Photographer: Tony Miller
Photographer: Peter Bennetts
Photographer: Peter Bennetts
Photographer: Tony Miller