What’s been called a ‘thought provoking’ design has been chosen for a residential site within the $8 million Green Square Town Centre.
Architectural firm MHN Design Union, reverted to traditional red-brick, blue collar values for the nine level, 250 apartment space building at Geddes Avenue, part of Bridgehill’s upcoming transformation of the old Waverley Council Works depot.
The design for the building was the winning entry and was considered to be a design that celebrated its links with the past, unlike the ‘egg-crate’ architecture currently absorbing people’s attention.
The competition for the building design was held under the sponsorship of the City of Sydney’s Design Excellence process and the jury consisted of Bridgehill managing director Yibin Xu, Architectus director Michael Harrison and New South Wales Public Works Darlene van der Breggen.
The jury was impressed by the contemporary interpretation of the sites industrial history, including the vertical columns that replicated the old chimney stacks.
The columns also exist to hide the mechanical services of the building, as well as forming a protected walkway along Geddes Avenue, which may become an integral part with the vision for an exciting new neighbourhood.
A director of MHNDU Brian Meyerson said that the design will provide lasting quality and an aspirational future for young apartment buyers.
“We broke the design mould of tight, repetitive grids by creating an emotional and evocative link to the solid, red brick buildings of yesteryear which every Sydney-sider can relate to,” he said.
Fellow MHNDU director Michael Hay, said the façade of the building is broken into strong vertical elements with deep recesses that allow light and ventilation into the apartments, corridors and lobbies.
“The design of the interiors, by MHN Design Union’s Jo Lawless, builds further on this architectural approach and takes its inspiration from the area’s industrial past with sliding metal screens, polished concrete floors, exposed timber and brickwork,” Mr Hay said.
Other design initiatives for the building are a community garden on top of the roof, two publicly accessible landscaped pedestrian links through the site, enclosed and semi-enclosed communal cubes protected from the weather including an acoustically insulated music room, underground connections to nearby sites and two levels of basement parking for more than 200 vehicles. There will also be visitor parking under new roadways.
Bridgehill is expected to lodge the DA for the building project in the coming months.
