Exemplary Apartments Open Day 17 May 2015
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! This Open Day has been arranged as one of the public programs associated with the Australian Institute of Architects National Architecture Conference being held in Melbourne from Thursday 14 May - Saturday 16 May 2015 ! ! !
Preface Hon. Richard Wynne, Minister for Planning
Apartment living is becoming more popular across Melbourne than at any time in our history. More than one third of dwelling starts last year were apartments. This is a massive shift in how people want to live. This celebration of exemplary apartments by the Robin Boyd Foundation shows that with good design, we can achieve great things. Through the recently released Better Apartments Discussion Paper, this Government is formalising the vital conversation happening across Victoria on how to ensure that as our cities grow, we achieve the quality of development Victorians expect. We are also reshaping the Office of the Victorian Government Architect so it can play a stronger role in leading a whole of government approach towards excellence in our built environment. Victoria has a proud tradition of great architecture and design. What we build today can and should become the heritage of tomorrow.
For copies of the Better Apartments Discussion Paper, please telephone the DELWP Customer Service Centre on 136186, email customer.service@delwp.vic.gov.au (or relevant address), or via the National Relay Service on 133 677 www.relayservice.com.au. This document is also available on the internet at www.delwp.vic.gov.au
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Index
1.
Preface
2.
Good quality apartment design
3.
Design and apartments
4.
Cairo
5.
Stanhill
6.
Domain Park
7.
The Domain
8.
Melbourne Terrace
9.
QVII
10.
Upper House
11.
The Commons
12.
126 Walsh Street
13.
Apartment statistics
14.
2014 Churchill Fellowship Report
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Jill Garner Associate Victorian Government Architect
The housing preferences of Melbourne residents are in a state of flux. Evidence suggests more than half of households would prefer to live in a multi-unit dwelling in the right location than in a detached house in the wrong location. For the first time ever, more apartments are being built in metropolitan Melbourne than detached houses. Living in greater proximity brings with it diverse challenges in amenity that need to be 'designed in' in this residential type. Challenges include protecting access to daylight, sunlight, natural ventilation, thermal comfort, acoustic and visual privacy. Meaningful connections to outdoor spaces, delineation between private, shared and public space, and genuine engagement with the street are design considerations that will enhance the amenity for contemporary residents and protect a quality housing legacy for future generations. We cannot afford to get this wrong.
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David Karotkin National President 2014-2015 Australian Institute of Architects
As we come together to experience some of Melbourne’s exemplary apartments as part of the National Architecture Conference Fringe Event Program, it is important to remind ourselves of the ongoing role of architects in advocating for good design policies. The Australian Institute of Architects is committed to promoting good design for our communities and in particular design for high density living, understanding that good design addresses functionality, safety, sustainability, productivity, and adaptability as well as aesthetics - and it is also inspiring. We support the implementation of planning policies, including design guidelines, that will result in improved living standards. Housing affordability is a big issue and we know that affordability can be achieved through innovative design by skilled architects. Affordability includes the cost of ongoing energy consumption and building maintenance (costs that are not borne by the developer but by the user), all of which can be reduced through quality design. By adopting policy frameworks like the SEPP65 in NSW all around the nation, performance based design quality guidelines can be applied in a flexible way to allow innovative design solutions which lead to improved affordability, housing diversity, and improved living standards – now and into the future. SEPP65, which includes a requirement to use architects, focuses on lifting the design standards of multi-residential buildings and has been widely recognised as positive and effective policy leading to exemplary apartments. We commend the Robin Boyd Foundation for their work in promoting the value of design and the role that architects play in achieving design excellence.
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Good Quality Apartment Design Clare McAllister
European immigrants arriving in Melbourne during the early to mid 20C often made apartment living their first choice, preferring the convenience and sense of community this form of housing provided. This predilection is reflected in the high quality design of apartments dating from this era. In more recent times, apartments have been seen as transitory accommodation, somewhere to live while young before moving on to a detached home in the suburbs. With house prices rising out of the reach of many there is a renewed demand for apartment living as a long-term option. Inner city apartments also offer close proximity to public transport and a diversity and intensity of activities. So apartments are, once again, becoming a ‘first choice’. Unfortunately much of the apartment stock currently being built suffers from both poor design and ordinary construction standards, resulting in bad press for apartment living (‘Fears raised of apartments slums’, Sunday Age 03 May 2015) and ongoing debates about the need in Victoria for mandatory Good Design Guidelines for apartments. Quality apartment design requires us to look beyond apartments as short term options and think of them as ‘small houses in the sky’, providing all the functionality and liveability of a house, albeit within a smaller footprint. Good quality apartments should achieve the same benchmarks as any other form of good quality housing i.e good orientation, daylight and natural ventilation; access to some form of useable outdoor space; and a level of adaptability. Thinking of apartments as small houses doesn’t necessarily mean that bigger apartments are better, and setting minimum apartment sizes does not guarantee a good design outcome. What is critical is well considered internal planning to ensure the best possible use is made of the space available. For example, a compact apartment with higher ceilings and appropriate glazing will provide a much better level of internal amenity than will be achieved by simply adding extra floor area to a ‘standard’ apartment. And ensuring the second bedroom is large enough to accommodate a
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queen-size bed opens up opportunities for sharing the rent or mortgage, offering a greater level of flexibility and affordability. Good apartment design is also in the detail. In a well-designed compact apartment the kitchen may be stripped back to the bare essentials (fridge, sink, cooktop, oven, somewhere to store food, plates and pots) but it is still ‘useable’ – not everybody likes (or can afford) to eat out every night. And well-designed apartments recognise that - like all homeowners - apartment dwellers have ‘stuff’ and need a variety of storage options to stay organised. To this list of good design criteria for apartments we can also add engendering a sense of community. In larger buildings this can be supported by well considered communal facilities including roof top gardens and other shared amenities. It can also be achieved in a more modest way by providing access corridors and stairs with good natural light (and ventilation) and enough width to allow people to stop and have a chat with their neighbours. Finally, good quality apartments are not just about providing amenity for the residents. In many ways the design of an apartment building at street level is more critical than the design of any other part of the project. Buildings that support and encourage an active street life not only help create safer and more vital environs for residents and the wider community, they also provide connectivity and a better ‘fit’ into a local neighbourhood. Clare McAllister is the Design Director at MA Architects
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Design and Apartments Tom Alves
Apartments are a type of urban housing that constitutes a significant component of the housing stock of many large cities around the world. Despite several important periods of apartment development in Melbourne’s history, this form of housing has never been a major part of our housing past. However, recent years have seen a big change in housing provision for Melbourne. For the first time ever, more apartments are being built in metropolitan region than detached houses. These apartments are located not only in the prominent new towers of the central city area but in a variety of different building forms located throughout many other suburbs as well. Apartment provision has long been promoted in metropolitan strategic planning as a means to accommodate population and household growth efficiently and to support well-serviced urban precincts. Apartment living is also recognised as a necessary part of transition to sustainability at a regional scale. But are things happening according to plan? A sizeable part of new apartment supply in Melbourne is driven by the emergence of a global market for apartments as a channel for the transfer of international capital. In this context, the role of new housing production as an investment vehicle needs to be balanced carefully with addressing the housing needs of the local population and securing a valuable housing legacy for future generations. As the Melbourne metropolitan region and also some of Victoria’s regional centres are changed permanently by new apartment development, it is important that design plays a key part in the processes by which this urban transformation is managed. Equally important is that new apartments provide their occupants with well-designed homes. Living in greater proximity provides challenges to maintaining residential amenity, a challenge further amplified by the drivers and constraints of the production process. Daylight and natural ventilation, sunlight access, thermal comfort, acoustic and visual privacy, fit-for-purpose spaces and meaningful connections to outdoor environments are all part of making
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sustainable urban homes. Meanwhile, clear delineation between private, shared and public space, genuine engagement with the street, and enhancing the quality and amenity of the civic realm are all ways that apartment development can contribute to creating distinctive urban places. Diverse housing that caters to people and households of all ages and abilities, and buildings that consume fewer resources and exhibit resilience through adaptability provide the best opportunity to support a healthy and culturally rich city. To get the benefits of increased apartment provision while avoiding the pitfalls of opportunistic supply, and to get the quality design we want without stifling production, requires that we take stock of where we are; stopping both to reappraise the way we manage urban development to achieve the best apartment outcomes, and to look back and around at the best of the of the legacy we have accrued to date. The apartments featured in this booklet represent important milestones in the history of Melbourne’s urban housing past and provide cues for its successful future. The Robin Boyd Foundation’s Exemplary Apartments Open Day is an opportunity to experience and consider the ways each of these apartment buildings has addressed the particular issues of apartment design in the context of their unique site and development context. Dr Tom Alves is a Senior Adviser at the Office of the Victorian Government Architect
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Cairo Architect Best Overend/Architecture Architecture Address 98 Nicholson Street, Fitzroy Completion 1936/2012 Progressive and daring, Cairo Flats (1936) remain an exceptional multi-residential exemplar of high amenity, enduring quality and rigorous efficiency in design, almost 80 years after their construction. Interwar Melbourne had an under-developed palette for higher density housing; with a growing need for affordable and diverse types of accommodation to suit an evolving market. This need however had begun to challenge cultural affections toward detached housing, formal privacy and segregation of traditional family life. Reluctantly, apartment living was slowly gaining momentum. Acheson Best Overend was passionate about housing Melbournians affordably; having spent several years in the London offices of notable modernist Wells Coates, the welltravelled charismatic local architect imported aesthetic cues and spatial strategies from his time abroad. At Cairo Overend championed the ‘minimum flat’, focusing on maximising comfort while minimising the functional footprint and consequently, rent. Even now this remains a contentious housing type; these compact 24 square meter homes suiting only select lifestyles, offering limited adaptability, and entirely reliant on amenity, siting, and detailing. As a result, these 28 predominantly studio style bachelor flats owe their success to the broader development scheme. Luxuriously surrounded on all sides by established gardens layered with ivy, lush foliage, ferns and trees, the modest twostorey building follows a U-shaped plan facing Carlton Gardens. Both flanks are shallow with dual aspect, which thanks to the low rise and expansive central courtyard allows direct northern sunlight and passive ventilation to both levels. Bachelor flats and single bedroom units are repeated vertically, each with expressed concrete balconies, external gallery access and common roof terrace. Cairo’s centerpiece is a somewhat precarious, cantilevered concrete stair uncoiling from roof to ground. Its bold sculptural form simultaneously expresses the
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revolutionary technology of reinforced concrete, while giving a stylistic nod to the Ocean Liner – itself a triumph of engineering, luxury and exoticism. Nautical pipe railings trace the stair and encircle the building, porthole windows stamp each entry door, and private service hatches cater for the modern bachelor. Offsetting the minimum flats’ spatial sacrifices with modern labor and space saving mechanisms, each incorporated reconfigurable furnishings, in-house meals and laundry/waste services. While the apartments, original dining hall and café (now refurbished) are no longer serviced; Cairo continues to attract a creative population that is seemingly less transient than initially intended. Michael Roper of local practice Architecture Architecture is an engaged resident who has respectfully tuned his compact flat to contemporise and hone its efficiency and comfort. Maintaining the base shell, typical layout and voluminous height, Roper has reoriented the kitchen circulation, repositioned and exchanged the intended single bed for a neat fold-up queen, and built in a shallow wall of storage concealed effortlessly behind a sweeping curtain. Bathed in daylight with outlook tempered by layers of semi-private garden and ‘borrowed’ courtyard landscape beyond, the main living space is readily transformed from a sleeping space to either a dining, lounge, or media room. Simple, qualitative resolution of each detail has optimised the ongoing livability of the minimum flat typology. A model, that without comparable consideration of amenity and affordability, is likely irreplicable. Text: Bonnie Herring, Architect, Associate at Breathe Architecture Images: Tom Ross of Brilliant Creek
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Brochure, drawing & photographs: Overend Family Collection
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Stanhill Architect Frederick Romberg Address 34 Queens Road, Melbourne Design 1942 Completion 1950-52 Largely invisible from St Kilda Road aside from a glimpse of sculptural concrete balustrades between trees, Stanhill is oriented to take advantage of sweeping views to the adjacent parkland of Albert Park. It is from Queens Road that the overall form and massing of Stanhill can be read: here, four volumes of vertically stacked two-bedroom apartments are legible – no “skin” or “mask” disguises the operations of each apartment, nor cloaks them uniformly as a homogenous whole. The vertically stacked apartments step up in height from the western edge of the site that borders Albert Park toward the eastern, St Kilda Road side in a manner that has been likened, particularly on it’s northern elevation, to a giant ocean liner marooned too far from Port Philip Bay. Comprised of five apartments per (typical) floor, arranged in a linear fashion along an external access walkway, all apartments benefit from abundant light from both north and south orientation (and in some cases east and west as well), natural ventilation from both sides and an outlook of apparently endless green. Designed by Swiss émigré architect Fredrick Romberg for infamous entrepreneur Stanley Korman during the early 1940s, the project was not realized until a decade later. The lengthy gestation period was largely due to the erratic and indecisive Korman, who implored Romberg to produce myriad different options for the building in terms of both form and program, vacillating even in the final stages of documentation over the function of the building as primarily residential, commercial or a private hotel. Although this iterative design process was doubtless extremely frustrating on a personal and financial level for Romberg, it may be argued that the ever-shifting requirements of the brief to accommodate diverse functions contributed to a robust design embedded with the potential for adaptability. Stripped of it’s signature “Stanhill” signage and divested of much of its original finishes, the projecting entry hall of the development still impresses, lit both night and day via its twenty-four circular sky-lights. Up a skinny lift, also shorn of its original timber lining,
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the visitor finds themselves in the light-filled and functional studio office, and under the blank gaze of a antiquated plaster cast. From this eighth-floor penthouse the glazing gapes to the south and west sides, drawing you out by the eyes into an expanse of nature. At 69m2, plus an additional 15m2 meeting room, the studio is spacious, and feels even more so due to the visual generosity of its landscape views. A terrace out to the north provides an ideal lunch spot (and disincentive to return to work) that is shared with other tenants of the building on weekends and for evening drinks. To the south lies a sizeable balcony, now painted a lurid yellow in a covert rebellion against the whiteness of Stanhill’s International Modernism. A (careful) skip down an external (and by today’s standards, noncompliant) stair draws the visitor toward Penthouse 701; an almost identical floor-plate here occupied as a residence. While much of the interior has been retrofitted by a different architect during the 1990s, the strengths of the space are just as apparent: access to light, cross ventilation and views to landscape, a flexible floor plate, generously sized rooms and floor-to-ceiling height, as well as access to external private and shared spaces. Like the office above, the views are largely uninhibited, with glazing housed in narrow steel frames and interrupted only by the distinctive flared columns behind. The studios are not perfect – compared with the typical twobedroom apartment type in Stanhill they have significantly less northern light and could do with additional operable windows to the northern elevation. There also are maintenance issues to contend with in an ageing building, and changes in Building Codes over the last sixty years have required upgrades to the glazing, balustrading, stairs and some external floor finishes, not all of which have been completed. Yet the quality of the space is extremely high because the fundamentals of good planning have been achieved here. Sixty years on, the apartments remain highly sought after, by individuals, couples and businesses seeking a place to live and work that brings them comfort and delight, and that facilitates connections between other humans and the greater environment. Text: Marnie Morieson, Architect Photographs: Wolfgang Sievers
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Domain Park Architect Robin Boyd Address 193 Domain Road, South Yarra Completion 1962 Domain Park was Melbourne's first 'high-rise' apartment building. Eighteen apartment floors were constructed above the ground floor and one basement level. Construction began in 1960 and was completed in 1962, after a year's financing delay. The project took advantage of recent Town Planning rule changes, which permitted tall apartment buildings adjacent to public gardens. The Fairlie flats in Anderson Street nearby were permitted under the same rule (built 1963). The site could hardly have been better, as Robin Boyd acknowledged. The long east-west disposition of the building allows ample northern sunlight to all apartments, and grand views both north and south. The removal of the lift cores to the south of the main building mass, and the shallow plan, enable living rooms to extend the full depth of the building, a rare achievement in a high-rise dwelling block. The corollary of the building's prominent siting is a reduction in amenity of the Victorian-era housing to the south, which is significantly shaded by the Domain Park tower. The location of the building on the northern portion of its site, with car-parking behind, only slightly ameliorates this impact. Robin Boyd was familiar with worldwide architectural trends through his academic work and architectural commentary. The separation of the vertical access cores from the habitable areas of the building, and the multi-cellular emphasis of the north facade are reminiscent of contemporary American and Japanese buildings, influenced by Structuralist ideas of dividing structure and accommodation, or 'served' from 'servant' space. This separation gives the practical advantages of liberating the arrangement of apartment interiors, and removing mechanical equipment some distance from dwellings. As well as this late-modern aesthetic, the elevational composition of the building has a hint of classicism to it: the penthouse level eave is heavier and shorter than other levels, forming a cap, and the rhythm of horizontal floorplates ceased before the building meets the ground, emphasising the base.
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Boyd held that good architecture resulted from Functionalist principles, to which Domain Park adheres, being constituted of simple materials unadorned, its construction and planning logic legible from its exterior, and its mechanical systems being modern for its era. Purple-brown manganese bricks, aluminium-framed windows and bold glass balustrades act as infill within the painted concrete frame. The regularity of the concrete frame is played off against the apparently random arrangement of balconies and windows, which indicate the variety of the apartments' floor plans within. The interiors are arranged with service rooms concentrated to the south, with small windows, while living areas and bedrooms are open to the northern prospect and generally more benign weather. The low ceilings might feel oppressive if it not for the ample light and views to the exterior from all rooms. The public spaces and many of the existing apartment interiors are in relatively original condition. The unusual Company governance structure of the building may have restricted alteration of individual apartments – which requires consent of the managing Board. Apartments in Domain Park continue to provide a delightful and valued setting for urban life, due to the amenity inherent in their basic interior configuration, and the favourable siting of the building as a whole. Domain Park is a model for new high-density residential building, which rarely achieves this standard of spatial generosity and refined aesthetic modesty. Text: Julian Tuckett, a Melbourne based Architect in private practice Photograph: Mark Strizic Drawing: Grounds Romberg Boyd – Alan Nelson
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Memo by Robin Boyd explaining the design of Domain Park
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Memo by Robin Boyd explaining the design of Domain Park
Original Lend Lease sales brochure
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Original Lend Lease sales brochure
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robin boyd foundation public open day exemplary apartments sunday 17 may 2015
The Domain Architect Demaine Russell Trundle Armstrong Orton (original) SJB Architects (conversion) Address 1 Albert Road, Melbourne Completion 1964/1994 The site at 1 Albert Road, cornering St Kilda Road, documents the lineage of shifting trends in Melbourne. Once a convex arrangement of 15 two-storey Victorian terraces, the land was purchased by British Petroleum as part of their building programme for local office headquarters, decentralised from the city. Its location was strategic, with a north-east orientation across the Shrine gardens towards the CBD never to be built upon, views south-east overlooking Fawkner Park, and views behind over Albert Park Lake and Port Philip Bay. BP House was a 24 storey office tower designed by RS Demaine, Russell, Trundle, Armstrong and Orton, completed in 1964. The architects forwent the option of a curtain wall glass building, instead presenting 3 preferred options to the client: a single hexagonal tower option, a double rectangular slab tower option, and the eventual curved option. Structurally, the building was simple: a rigid steel frame of primary and cross beams, and a reinforced concrete slab around the central core of 6 lifts. Materials chosen were dark brown brick cladding to the east and west, solid white linear balconies expressed boldly in its horizontality, and bronze aluminium window frames with grey glass. Conversion into apartments occurred in 1993, when BP left to reinstate their original CBD location. SJB architects won the design competition to fitout the building into 110 apartments, now 105 due to several amalgamations. The architects retained only the structural bones, allowing for high ceiling heights for residential use, penetrations in slabs for services, and a reduction in lifts to 4. Other works to the existing building include rendering of the brickwork, painting of the balconies and a new entry portico. Residential dwellings start from the first floor upwards; ground and mezzanine are retained for the entry foyer, offices, store rooms and some resident’s facilities.
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The typical 851sqm floor plate was just over 16m in overall depth; corridors are double loaded, with single aspect apartments. Exception to this are the two end apartments that benefit from a triple aspect. All habitable rooms are pushed to the perimeter, benefitting from floor-to-ceiling windows and doors opening out onto balconies either facing north (convex) or south (concave). The distribution of apartments is a mix of 1, 2 and 3 bedroom dwellings on each floor, ranging in size from 47sqm to 140sqm. Service rooms - bathroom and laundries - are located away from the perimeter of the building, devoid of windows and are mechanically ventilated. This permits an open plan arrangement of living and dining areas making full use of the sweeping northeast facing balcony and views of the city and gardens beyond, with kitchens a central part of this. Ceiling heights unseen in purpose built residential apartment buildings are maximised in these living areas, with dropped bulkheads over the bathroom/kitchen joinery providing room for services and linear slot A/C vents. Given the size of these apartments and the demographic marketed toward, there are as many bathrooms as bedrooms. Finishes, fixtures and fittings are in keeping with highend interiors in the 1990s, which appealed to the developer given SJB’s portfolio at that stage. Many of the apartments have since been amalgamated or renovated, demonstrating the concept of adaptation as needs arise - testament to a simple structural system based on commercial office design. Text: Esther Sugihto, Architect Photographs: Jaime Diaz- Berrio
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Newspaper advertisement from the early 90s robinboyd.org.au
Newspaper advertisement, early 1990s
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robin boyd foundation public open day exemplary apartments sunday 17 may 2015
Melbourne Terrace Architect Katsilidis Architects Address 191 Franklin Street, Melbourne Completion 1994 The Melbourne Terrace Apartments designed by architect Nonda Katsalidis are noteworthy not only for their exemplary design, but for their contribution to apartment living in Melbourne. When constructed in 1994, apartment living brought to mind bald concrete high-rise housing blocks. The Melbourne Terrace Apartments offered an alternative – a stately urban palace of contrasting colours and materials – and ushered in a new era apartment development. The Melbourne Terrace Apartments were some of the first buildings completed as part of the City of Melbourne’s Postcode 3000 policy. At the time the Melbourne CBD was lifeless in the evenings and weekends and this policy aimed to draw new residents to the city. It played into an awakening appreciation of the benefits of city living, with urbane residents keen to leave behind the tedium of home maintenance and commuting associated with the suburbs. The apartments have a European sensibility in the way they contribute to the public realm: they are built to the street, have multiple entrances and a café and a supermarket on the ground floor. The car parking on the lower levels acts as a podium and is softened by vines, with the entrance respectfully tucked around the corner. The façades are exuberant and playful, with distinctive concrete shafts signaling the entrances below. The sculptures by artist Peter Corlette that mark each entrance, Equus, Mondo, Roma and Fortuna, represent Roman and Italian icons and deities and provide more overt references to the apartments’ lineage. The Melbourne Terrace Apartments were designed to be constructed in stages: Equus was built first to test out the viability of this then radical project, with the original inhabitants including the architect’s family and friends. The four buildings contain 65 apartments artfully combined in various single story, mezzanine and two story penthouse configurations. There are at typically two apartment entrances per floor in each building, giving a high level of privacy for the residents.
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The apartments themselves were sold as empty shells for the residents to complete, with some but not all of the internal fitouts designed by Katsalidis. The high ceilings, extensive glazing and in this case central skylight, bathe the spaces with light, with the exposed concrete ceiling and walls echoing the warehouse conversions emerging at that time. The generous living spaces open up to balconies at either end allowing for natural ventilation across the apartment. This apartment contains a gallery style kitchen reflecting a then new tendency to entertain informally and eat out regularly. The more private bedroom, bathroom and study spaces on the upper floor rap around the central skylight and staircase, doing away with the need for corridors. Vertical windows and portholes offer glimpses of the urban context below. In comparison to the Commons and Cairo apartments, there is no desire to build community in these apartments. The entry staircases are narrow, dark and carpeted and the only shared space is the car park. One of the residents mentioned that they recently met one of their neighbours for the first time in the car park, despite living in the same building for the last fifteen years. These apartments were designed for a Randian hero seeking the autonomy of the city rather than the neighbourly description of urban life Jane Jacobs espoused. Text: Katherine Sundermann, Urban Designer at MGS Architects Photographs: John Gollings
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Brochure c 1990s robinboyd.org.au
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QVII Architect McBride Charles Ryan Address 300 Swanston Street, Melbourne Completion 2004 QVII forms one quadrant of a broader urban complex known as QV, consuming an entire urban block of the Hoddle Grid (formerly QV Hospital). The City of Melbourne as project proponent utilised a competitive tender process to select a private developer, (albeit contrary to public desire for civic use at that time). Urban quality was high on the agenda, with Council reeling from the destruction of city fabric at IM Pei’s Collins Place (1981) and Kurokowa’s Daimaru / Melbourne Central (1991). Accordingly, the urban block was to constitute a piece of complex city making which reengaged with Melbourne’s historic urban structure. Grocon’s successful tender was contingent on the competitive advantage of a consortium of architects. The development pierces a network of new laneways through the sloping site as an organising device and staging boundary between development parcels by each architect, with an anchoring civic space set atop of a subterranean mall. While QV’s public realm is relatively windswept, with a poorly appointed civic plaza, it provides a step in the right direction as a significant improvement on the dominant enclosed retail mall development model. QVII was the last piece of the QV puzzle, with the smallest footprint and most challenging planning framework associated with the Shrine Vista. The design team benefited however from the knowledge of neighbouring interfaces, and the ‘boomerang’ plan evolved in response. The boomerang plan deforms around a carpark exhaust from the basement below with apartments kept shallow at the perimeter. The bulge in the plan to the south orients views east or west to the street or to the plaza, whilst the elongated north elevation creates an ‘urban grandstand’ effect surveying the State Library Lawn. This curating of the plan shape in response to views and adjoining building’s demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of outlook, daylight and privacy, so critical in dense urban housing.
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Where the retail podium extrudes its full site extent, the curvilinear shaping atop of the orthogonal base creates a dynamic corner form to bookend the library forecourt. The Architects strong preference for formal distinction between podium and upper level necessitated a 900mm thick transfer slab. This pushed the building to the 40m height limit, necessitating a compression of floor to floor ceiling heights, which yielded an ingenious planning solution, the ‘island core’ within the plan.
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The island planning strategy employs a compact service core containing kitchen, bathroom and laundry, with a concentrated bulkhead enabling more generous ceiling heights in the remainder of the plan. The plan type recalls Mies Van Der Rohe’s Lafayette Park townhouses, enabling perimeter circulation which creates a sense of spatial complexity and generosity. Full height sliding doors retract away from the perimeter, and curved walling to internal and external corners add to this sense of continuous space, despite the compact floorplan. The configuration of the balconies to the north of the building and absence to the south reflects varied daylight and shading requirements. Where the north balconies provide positive shading, the removal to the south maximises daylight penetration into the shallow plan. At the north elevation the detailed resolution of the balcony creates a sense of compression, amplified by the dark bitumen surface underfoot, and lowered balcony soffit. During documentation Grocon directed changes to the original single bedroom apartment offering in response to unexpected market demand. Through this revision process an new level of diversity evolved, with 17 different apartment layouts emerging on each floor plate, whilst retaining the economy and spatial quality of the central core planning, through vertical repetition.
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In evaluating the design a decade on, the island core, contorted contextual plan form and shallow apartment depth remain relevant. The artificially lit and mechanically ventilated double loaded corridor, borrowed light bedrooms, absence of communal areas and piggy-backed apartment modules remain a challenge which the planning scheme and BCA are silent on. It is through the detailed resolution that MCR makes the best of these problematic market norms. The ‘snorkel’ to the inboard bedroom splays with a gentle curve to increase light refraction, whilst a seating nook with balcony access adds a valuable reading nook rather than sacrificial space. Further, whilst single aspect, the module is kept shallow, with tall floor to ceiling heights admitting excellent levels of daylight. Conceived in a vacuum of regulation around the quality of residential buildings, MCR’s QVII represents a carefully wrought solution to a challenging market. Text: Andy Fergus, Urban Designer, Urban Planner & Architecture Graduate Photographs: John Gollings
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Upper House Architect Jackson Clement Burrows Architects Address 520 Swanston Street, Carlton Completion 2012 JCB’s Upper House strikes a friendly, idiosyncratic silhouette at the corner of Swanston and Queensberry Streets. Comprising of a lower ‘Podium’ and upper ‘Cloud’ and delineated by a communal floor through its mid-section, Upper House achieves an undeniably animate quality punctuated by projecting steel balconies. Positioned along the northern corridor of Swanston Street that stretches between RMIT and Melbourne Universities, this part of the city has seen the demand for student housing spawn a bevy of residential developments, the results offering sometimes nondescript contributions to their urban context. The considered design and resolution of Upper House serves as an important juxtaposition, challenging notions that the provision of apartments, particularly where they occur within a student environment, must necessarily depart down a reductive road of concessions in dwelling amenity. Dwelling sizes, at 41-43m2 for one-bedroom and 56-64m2 for two-bedroom apartments, are modest. To overcome the constraints of floor area, Upper House demonstrates acute attention to apartment planning and layout critical in achieving appropriate amenity. At Cloud levels, four apartments per floor ensure dual aspect and cross-ventilation with each apartment adopting a corner and floor-to-ceiling windows maximising light penetration. Corner sited two-bedroom apartments continue through the Podium with recession from the southern boundary allowing in-board windows and ventilation to rear bedrooms. Details such as desks incorporated into the bedrooms of some apartments are a friendly and considered gesture to future student occupation, whilst the consolidation of kitchen and dining table liberates living areas. The Observatory, occupying the eleventh floor, is a successful example of communal space in an apartment setting. Comprising of a series of connected communal balconies it provides flexible yet clearly delineated spaces allowing their use by multiple groups, simultaneously, without undue imposition - an effective
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2 BEDROOM
2 BEDROOM
outcome given the area’s student population. Further, the layout of these courtyards allows residents to migrate in response to weather conditions, using Upper House’s form to seek shade or relief from the wind. A negotiated outcome, the manner in which the balconies of Upper House project over the site boundaries to the north and west, forms a positive relationship between public and private. Pragmatically, this increases dwelling floor areas but also attains the building’s distinctive form, a gesture largely successful thanks to its adjacency to the wide promenades of Swanston and Queensberry where the imposition of Upper House into the public realm is unobtrusive.
QUEENSBERRY STREET
SWANSTON STREET
1501
1504
2 BEDROOM
2 BEDROOM
Apartments are oriented to the perimeter of the building, arrayed around a central core, accessed via ventilated double loaded corridors. Here, some of the challenges of singular deep floor plate become apparent. Whilst not exhibited at Cloud floors, there remain instances of dwellings constrained by singular aspect to the south or bedrooms lacking immediate window access through the Podium. The design’s response incorporates wide, full-height
N
CLOUD APARTMENTS LEVEL 15 *Any furniture shown is for illustration only and not included.
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sliding doors between bedroom and living areas to address this, dissolving the boundaries between, however it highlights the limitations apartments modules located away from a building corner, or unfavourably oriented experience in achieving adequate daylighting and cross-ventilation. Upper House’s inner city context and prospects of future build-out of surrounding properties also present their own problems to living conditions of its occupants. Upper House enjoys the presence of a pairing of heritage terraces and laneway to its south, somewhat curtailing significant development. Its interface to the east along Queensberry presents more of a challenge with the 16-storey Eminence apartments currently under construction. Having predicated development of a similar scale with its lower Podium constructed to the boundary at this interface, it underscores the importance of attaining appropriate equitable offsets to adjoining development, establishing a culture of reciprocal ‘politeness’, thereby securing, externally, the quality of amenity achieved through smart apartment design within. Text: Will Priestley, Urban Designer, Urban Planner and Masters of Architecture Student Photographs: Foodslicer
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robin boyd foundation public open day exemplary apartments sunday 17 may 2015
The Commons Architect Breathe Architecture Address 7-9 Florence Street, Brunswick Completion 2014 Frustrated with the lack of quality and sustainability in Melbourne’s multi-residential industry – nowhere more apparent than in Brunswick – Breathe’s Jeremy McLeod teamed up with a group of architects to purchase a site and take matters into their own hands. Aiming to deliver a triple bottom line development, Breathe set about designing a building that makes several major shifts to the market paradigm. In essence these are about the elimination of unnecessary elements typically built-in to multi-res, and using the savings in cost and space to provide greater affordability and genuine liveability. Positioned directly beside Anstey train station, the project’s biggest break with status quo was as obvious as it was breath taking – don’t build a car park. This saved $750K from the cost plan and freed the ground level for a café and studio spaces, adding life and amenity to the previously industrial streetscape. Ample, conveniently accessed bike parking and a concurrently established goGet share car are offered to supplement public transport, with owners’ corporation fees going towards share car membership and an annual myki pass. Although council took some persuading, ultimately they recognised that this would mean less traffic in an already congested area. Savings from the car park were put toward a high performance thermal envelope (thickened especially on the west side to fend off afternoon sun and noise from the trains). Environmental modelling demonstrated that this investment eliminated the need for air-conditioning, saving a further $300K. During a heat wave in January 2014, when four consecutive days over 40 degrees led to local power outages due to massive use of air-conditioners, Commons apartments on the most exposed northwest corner topped-out at 27 degrees. Combining the envelope with efficient services has meant two-bedroom units have an energy footprint around one-quarter of a typical suburban house. Half the apartments are oriented north to receive direct sunlight, the other half enjoy fantastic outlook towards the city. There is no skimping on balcony sizes, ensuring these are genuinely useable
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extensions of the living area. Deciduous wisteria climbs the northern façade, working together with the balconies to provide passive shading. The commercial imperative to maximise sellable floor area often results in deep floor plates, with no cross-ventilation and rooms lacking direct connection to the outside. Breathe have improved on this while maintaining yield efficiency through skilfully incorporating a series of voids running down through the centre of the building. These ensure all rooms receive natural light and fresh air – even in the event of the warehouse next-door being developed to a similar scale. The housing is also future-proofed against new development behind; rather than maxing out the envelope the southern apartments are setback from the boundary to ensure future outlook. While marketing agents may insist upon an en suite for every bedroom as a prerequisite, the architects recognised that providing secondary bathrooms would consume 6m2 in each apartment and add $200K to overall costs. Dispensing with these as well as private laundries improved affordability and enabled greater generosity of space in the living areas we spend most of our time in. Suspended ceilings were also removed, increasing the internal height and allowing the exposed thermal mass of the concrete slab to work better. Through painstakingly redrawing the services engineers’ drawings, the architects curated the usually unseen mess of ducting and reticulation into something that brings expression and vitality. Brass plumbing and door hardware was specially made without energy intensive chrome plating. Ceramic tiles – with their high carbon mileage and toxic products to install and clean – are conspicuous in their absence. Escape stairs in modern apartment developments are typically stark windowless concrete shafts, unused except in emergencies. By installing sprinklers throughout The Commons, the stair could be glazed and become something residents want to use instead of the lift. This also enabled the shared circulation areas to be naturally lit and ventilated. Ascending the stairs to the rooftop (not
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uncomfortable in a building this height) you’ll find productive gardens, a beehive, and a large terrace to BBQ or hold parties on. The solar-powered shared laundry with six commercial grade machines has had environmental and social benefits, creating an opportunity for residents to casually meet and get to know each other. In contrast to the typical anonymity of apartment living, a genuine sense of community has emerged here. This is probably thanks also to the relatively small size of the building, a humble grouping of 24 units when the broader market is now routinely seeing developments of several hundred. Demonstrating that sustainability and liveability can be achieved alongside affordability and commercial viability, The Commons shows us the difference when apartments are built to be homes rather than speculative commodities. All but four of the units are now owner occupied. Plans are afoot to spread this quiet revolution with the launch of Nightingale – a new development model that takes up and extends learnings from The Commons. The first iteration is soon to be built just across the street. With any luck, they’ll be brassing off more than a few taps in this town and we may see broader change in the multi-res sector. Text: Byron Meyer, Graduate Architect and Research Assistant (Monash University) Photographs: Urban Angles and Andrew Wuttke
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LEGEND 1 2 3 4
Winter Deck Communal Laundry Tool Shed Productive Garden
3
1
2
4
3
Roof Deck 1:200
0
1
2
3
4
5
LEGEND 1 2 3 4 5
Cafe Tenancy Commercial Tenancy Bicycle Garage Artist Studio 1 Artist Studio 2
Level 1 1:200
0
1
2
3
4
5
ANSTEY TRAIN STATION PLATFORM
UPFIELD BIKE PATH
1 5
4
2
Site & Ground 1:200
FLORENCE STREET
3
1
0
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1
2
3
4
5
robin boyd foundation public open day exemplary apartments sunday 17 may 2015
126 Walsh Street Architect Neometro in collaboration with MA Architects and Carr Design Group Address 126 Walsh Street, South Yarra Completion 2014 In an area dense with apartment developments, 126 Walsh Street is formally aware of its context. The four storey, rectangular block is set back from the street with a generous landscaped entry and recessed courtyard space. But internally this apartment development is radically different from those surrounding it, containing only four flats, one per floor. This is the largest apartment featured in the open day, with 300 sqm of internal living space and 50sqm external spaces, far bigger than the average home. This is a three bedroom suburban home, transplanted to the centre and sandwiched into an apartment form. The usual tropes of apartment design and living are gone; the plan manipulation, optimised utility, spaces borrowed and squeezed. The corridor space, usually absent, is a major element of this development. The project brings to mind SITE Architects ‘Highrise of Homes’ exhibition project, a framed structure with individual suburban homes slotted in between the frame, like ornaments on a shelf. But here the idea of the suburban home is robbed of its objectness, it is compressed and squeezed to fill the site, roof removed and unified in a singular form. It begs the question, is there a possibility within an apartment complex, especially one attempting to mediate between the suburb and the city, to articulate individual units? Can this be more house than apartment? The planning of this apartment is generous, with rooms strung out along a central corridor. To the East are the bedrooms, second lounge and a study. Each bedroom gets an en-suite bathroom, each with a different finished. At the western end the corridor leads onto an extremely open living, dining and kitchen area, all linked to a cleverly screened outdoor area to the street. The kitchen, usually a tightly planned, controlled element of an apartment, is here loose and flowing. The level of finishes are fine throughout, with refined commercial interior details applied. The central corridor has a bulkhead that runs the length of it, allowing the services to be contained within. This allows the air conditioning
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vents to be discretely located along it, and for the ceilings the living areas to be an exposed slab, a trademark of Neometro developments. There is no garden or communal facilities, although the corridor is wide enough to play a tempered version of backyard cricket down it. Neometro have a legacy of apartment building in Melbourne, consistently delivering high quality, well designed apartments for 30 years. The projects cover a wide scope of typologies, from tightly planned arrangements, to low density luxe developments, all importantly located within 5km from the city centre. Through this broad and consistent output, it allows us to explore the question of why apartment living, across all typologies, and outside the city centre, is so desirable. Text: Andrew Murray, Research Assistant, University of Melbourne Photographs: Derek Swalwell
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PROJECT
TYPOLOGY
PLOT PLOT RATIO/ SIZE GFA
HEIGHT (STOREYS)
DWELLING NUMBERS
UPFIELD RAIL LINE
THE COMMONS
4.7 : 1 3,526 SQM
6 LEVELS 1 COMMERCIAL 4 RESIDENTIAL 1 ROOF TERRACE
2,360SQM
0.5 : 1 1,250 SQM
2 LEVELS 2 RESIDENTIAL 1 ROOF TERRACE
TOWER SINGLE LOADED
2,300SQM
3.7 : 1 8,500SQM
TOWER VENTILATED DOUBLE LOADED
3,500SQM
7:1 20,000SQM
SLAB SINGLE LOADED
2100SQM
2:1 4,600SQM
INFILL SLAB VENTILATED CORE
FLORENCE STREET
748SQM
8 x 1 BEDROOM 16 x 2 BEDROOM 24 x TOTAL
CAIRO FLATS HORSESHOE BLOCK SINGLE LOADED
NICHOLSO
N STREET
HANOVER STRE ET
20 x STUDIO 8 x 1 BEDROOM 1 x 3 BEDROOM (CONVERTED DINING HALL) 29 x TOTAL
ANDERSON
STREET
DOMAIN PARK
DOMAIN
APPROX TOTAL 50 MIX 2, 3 & 4 BEDROOM
PAR RK K STREET
ROAD
20 LEVELS 18 RESIDENTIAL 1 LOBBY / SERVICE 1 BASEMENT
DOMAIN APTS
ST .K
RO AD
DOMAIN ROA
D
KIN
AL
BER
TR
OA D
ILD A
GS
WA Y
24 LEVELS APPROX TOTAL 100 23 RESIDENTIAL MIX 2, 3, 4 & 5 1 LOBBY / SERVICE BEDROOM 1 BASEMENT
STANHILL
ENS QUE
9 LEVELS 8 RESIDENTIAL 1 OFFICE
TOTAL 31 28 x 2 BEDROOM 3 x STUDIO
D
ROA
PROJECT
TYPOLOGY
PLOT PLOT RATIO/ SIZE GFA
HEIGHT (STOREYS)
DWELLING NUMBERS
4 LEVELS 4 RESIDENTIAL 1 BASEMENT
4 x TOTAL 3 x 3 BEDROOM 1 x 2 BEDROOM
9 LEVELS 7 RESIDENTIAL 1 RETAIL 2 PARKING
65 x TOTAL mix maisonette, 1,2 & 3 BEDROOM
11 LEVELS 3 COMMERCIAL 8 RESIDENTIAL
136 x TOTAL 17 x PER LEVEL MIX 1 & 2 BEDROOM
17 LEVELS 15 RESIDENTIAL 1 COMMERCIAL 1 COMMUNAL
110 x TOTAL mix STUDIO, 1 & 2 BEDROOM
WALSH ST
REET
WALSH ST
INFILL HYBRID
600SQM
2.5 : 1 1500SQM
INFILL SLAB MULTIPLE CORE
1,550SQM
6.5 : 1 10,160SQM
PODIUM SLAB DOUBLE LOADED
2,800SQM
7:1 15,000SQM
TOWER VENTILATED DOUBLE LOADED
552SQM
16.4 : 1 9,050SQM
QUEEN STR
EET
MELB TERRACE QUEEN VICTORIA MARKET
FRANKLIN
TRE
IN S
NKL
FRA
ET
STREET
QVII
SWANSTON STREET
LITTLE LONSDALE STREET
SWANST ON
STREET
UPPER HOUSE
QUEENSB
ERRY STR
EET
robin boyd foundation public open day exemplary apartments sunday 17 may 2015
2014 Churchill Fellowship Report To investigate planning policies that deliver positive social outcomes in hyper-dense, high-rise residential environments Executive Summary High-rise apartment towers are being built in central Melbourne at four times the maximum densities allowed in Hong Kong, New York and Tokyo – some of the highest density cities in the world. This is possible because the policies used to regulate decisionmaking for high-rise developments in central Melbourne are weak, ineffective or non-existent. This enables the approval of tower developments that are very tall and that squeeze out the space between buildings, with little regard on the effect on the residents within, the impact on the streets below or on the value of neighbouring properties. Increasing the supply of housing in the central city close to jobs and transport brings numerous benefits to the city and should be supported. The high-rise apartment tower plays an important role in delivering this supply. There is legitimate concern, however, that developing at these extreme densities will have negative, long-term impacts for Melbourne, eroding away Melbourne’s celebrated liveability. It will create a legacy of apartments that are of poor quality – homes that lack access to light, air and an outlook - and diminish the quality of the streets and parks below by blocking sunlight, increasing wind drafts and obstructing sky views. The quality of these public spaces is critical – even more so as these city residents retreat from their compact apartments to use the city’s streets and parks as their ‘living room’. At the same time, the density of these developments is resulting in a rapid and unpredictable increase in the population living in the central city. These residents need adequate open space and community services to ensure that they can enjoy a good quality of life. There are currently no policies in place that link the density of developments to the provision of this essential infrastructure, resulting in a significant funding opportunity being missed. Incentivising developers to deliver public benefit through density bonuses is common practice in many cities and has effectively delivered parks, plazas, community facilities like childcare and
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cultural facilities such as cinemas or performing arts spaces. It also enables the delivery of affordable housing to ensure lowincome earners are supported and have good access to their central-city jobs. This is good planning. Instead, Melbourne’s planning controls offer ‘cheap density’ to developers as they are able to build unlimited density with limited need for a community contribution. Not one of the five cities that I studied – New York, Vancouver, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Seoul - is choosing to develop in this way. There was general consensus from the planning and design experts that I interviewed who manage and study these established, globally successful cities that the densities being delivered in central Melbourne are too high and many questioned whether they could deliver long-term liveable outcomes. We have highly competent developers and design and planning professionals in Melbourne. It is the lack of effective policies that is letting Melbourne down. The evidence from these cities is clear. Melbourne would benefit from the introduction of policies that: Establish appropriate density controls in central Melbourne. Establish density bonuses to link development to public benefit and incentivise the delivery of new open spaces, affordable housing and other community facilities. Establish an enforcable tower separation rule. Establish apartment standards. This report also recommends investigating the introduction of two planning streams for large-scale development approvals that developers can choose between – an ‘as-of-right’ approval for meeting these controls (that can provide certainty to developers and the community) or a negotiated outcome (with community review) if the controls are exceeded. Too much attention is given to the height of these towers. What is far more important in delivering good outcomes for residents and the broader city are the overall numbers of people living in a development, whether the apartments enable a good quality of life or not, whether residents have access to the open space and community services that they need and the cumulative impact of these developments on the quality of the public realm below.
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It is difficult to retrofit or demolish high-rise apartment towers once the apartments are sold. Any negative impacts will therefore be long-lasting and the opportunity to capture a public benefit will be gone. As the proportion of Australians living in high-rise communities in our central cities increases, it is imperative to act now. This Executive Summary has been extracted from the 2014 Churchill Fellowship report by Leanne Hodyl The full report is available at www.churchilltrust.com.au This report represents the views of the author and the findings of her Churchill Fellowship. Contact: lthodyl@gmail.com
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robin boyd foundation public open day exemplary apartments sunday 17 may 2015
Contributors Thanks to all those who have contributed to the organisation of this event and catalogue:
Apartment Owners Building Managers Body Corporations Australian Institute of Architects The Minister for Planning and his Advisors Office of the Victorian Government Architect Melbourne Architours Emerystudio Bonnie Herring Marnie Morieson Julian Tuckett Esther Sugihto Katherine Sundermann Andy Fergus Will Priestly Byron Meyer Andrew Murray Danielle Jewson Overend Family Architecture Architecture MCR Architects Jackson Clements Burrows Architects Breathe Architecture MA Architects Piccolo Developments Neometro Felicity Houwen
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290 Walsh Street South Yarra Victoria 3141 T 03 9820 9838 tony.lee@robinboyd.org.au robinboyd.org.au