CHROFI was selected through the City of Sydney Design Excellence Competition for this important site in Sydney.

The project contains inherent design challenges, as on the one hand, a significant development envelope is available at the site while on the other, the project is sited within a sensitive low scale heritage precinct.

In response, our design establishes a contextual framework that stitches the development into its historically rich context. At the lower level, the building form is a setback and inflected to make more evident the qualities of the surrounding heritage buildings from the public domain. Furthermore, by establishing useful through site links, a public courtyard and a series of fine-grain public spaces, a more intimate appreciation of these buildings become available. Retail tenancies are positioned around these public spaces to activate these areas and bring vitality to the precinct.

Similarly, the residential foyer is conceived as an internal street and is of civic sensibility integrated with the overall public domain experience. The double-height entry colonnade along the southern site edge makes visible the northern facade of Transport House, whilst the dramatic vertical proportioned residential foyer frames the former Health Department Building. The design uncovers the latent value in the heritage context for public benefit as well as commercial gain.

Above these lower levels, the design steps and folds to respond to the unique view corridors available from the site while creating a sculptural building form that contributes interest to Sydney’s skyline. The benefit again is twofold with the apartments contained within the development benefitting from improved orientation and access to the views whilst the shifts in the building form establish a complementary relationship to its neighbours.

Our investigation into the sale price of apartments in Sydney revealed that a significant premium applied to apartments with direct orientation to harbour views when compared against apartments with less focused views. Hence further sculpting of form to improve orientation and view can return significantly higher value over the same area of a floor constructed. In turn, we identified the design of the floor plan to be the primary driver in increasing ROI in this development.

The apartment interiors are composed to prioritise access to view and sunlight from the living areas as these are the spaces where residents will gain the greatest benefit. Living areas are composed to broaden the frontage from which the kitchen, living, dining and outdoor living can all derive optimum views and solar access. A key strategy is a generous occupiable edge that runs seamlessly from indoor to outdoor (winter garden) - an edge where the view and solar amenity is maximised. The bedroom areas still benefit from the secondary views available from the site and are treated with a more closed facade to reduce heat gain whilst providing a more intimate and private bedroom environment.

The overall composition is carefully controlled in reconciling the geometry shifts while a contemporary architectural expression is applied to give the project visual strength and integrity. The form and expression are refined and finessed to make a restrained and dignified architecture that complements its Macquarie Street address.

The drawings and visualisation shown vary from early design studies to the current design. Final design subject to planning approval.

Client:
Stamford Property Services P/L

Program:
Residential Tower, Adaptive Reuse, Commercial

Scale:
13,000 sqm

Year:
2010 - 2014

Scope:
Design, Stage 2 Development Application

Team:
Kann Finch, Aurecon, AECOM, Architectus, JBA, Graham Brooks & Associates, Inhabit, Context, Shelmerdines, Halcrow, GTA, Vipac, Page Kirkland, Advance Building Approvals

Location:
Sydney, NSW

Visualisation:
Doug & Wolf, Ivolve Studios, CHROFI

Competition Team:
Taylor Thomson Whitting, Altus Page Kirkland, Abigroup

Status:
In Progress, 1st Place