By Breathe
Arkadia is about community and sustainability; it’s about memory and place. Acknowledging its past, present and future, we started with interviews of the surrounding neighbours and a historical study of the working class community that existed here in the 20th century.
At its core, Arkadia was designed to be environmentally and socially sustainable, while capturing the memory of its past. Revealing the history of the site are nearly half a million recycled bricks paying homage to the clay quarries and brick factories that stood there in centuries past.
Arkadia consists of four buildings, with four identities and four communities. Each building has its own space to come together: its own productive garden, its own lift lobby, its own address and its own community. They share a rooftop and open out to the north to embrace a new park to share with the residents of Huntley Street and beyond.
Arkadia was created in collaboration with DKO Architecture and Oculus.
Awards
Photography by Tom Ross
We are proud to acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the Traditional Custodians of the land upon which Arkadia stands. We recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and culture.
Australia’s most awarded sustainable design firm, and its most dependable.
Our Approach
Breathe undertakes meaningful projects we can be proud of — those that align with our purpose and values.
Since we focus on maximising positive impact, many of our projects don’t fit the common definition of ‘architecture’.
We work to understand who we’re designing for. We strive to inspire, engage and support our clients and the broader communities we serve.
We prioritise social, environmental and economic sustainability in every project. We question the status quo to pursue outcomes that are informed by, and seek to better, those that came before.
Above all, we prioritise ethics along with aesthetics, and design without ego, to create the best outcomes for our clients and their communities.