The Urban Developer
AdvertiseEventsWebinarsUrbanity
Industry Excellence
Urban Leader
Sign In
Membership
Latest
Menu
Location
Sector
Category
Content
Type
Newsletters
Urban Leader Awards Logos RGB White
NOMINATIONS CLOSE SEPTEMBER 12 RECOGNISING THE INDIVIDUALS BEHIND THE PROJECTS
NOMINATIONS CLOSING SEPTEMBER 12 URBAN LEADER AWARDS
LEARN MOREDETAILS
TheUrbanDeveloper
Follow
About
About Us
Membership
Awards
Events
Webinars
Listings
Resources
Terms & Conditions
Commenting Policy
Privacy Policy
Republishing Guidelines
Editorial Charter
Complaints Handling Policy
Contact
General Enquiries
Advertise
Contribution Enquiry
Project Submission
Membership Enquiry
Newsletter
Stay up to date and with the latest news, projects, deals and features.
Subscribe
OtherStaff WriterSun 18 Jan 15

Q&A: Shane Plazibat, Plazibat Architects

TUD+ MEMBER CONTENT
s
SHARE
print
Print

Shane Plazibat is the Principal and founder of Plazibat Architects

. He has more than 25 years’ experience designing award-winning projects such as New Farm riverfront apartment buildings Altura and Aquila, and Fig Tree Pocket Houses 1 and 2. Shane has many years’ experience designing major civic, hospitality and recreation projects in Hong Kong, London and Australia.

Shane is currently working on a contemporary riverfront home in Hawthorne, Brisbane for a family of four, and a 25-storey mixed use building in Newstead, Brisbane.

How does your design philosophy and particular approach to multi-residential, mixed use developments meet the objectives of your developer clients?
Our design approach revolves around creating modern developments that encapsulate sub-tropical design elements. Our aim is to set them apart in the market place and create individual building identities for our clients to market.

For example, one of the distinguishing design features of our buildings over the last ten years has been exterior shading that both protects inhabitants from the harsh sun and also gives the building character.

Recently, we have been working on two buildings for the same client that achieve this. The almost-complete Peninsula Apartments at Kangaroo Point, and the Skyring Apartments in Newstead, which have just started construction.

Both of these developments sold out prior to commencement of construction.
Developments around the country are becoming significantly taller. What influence do you think this will have on the city’s urban fabric?
Taller buildings tend to cluster together to create identifiable nodes within the city skyline and add greater visual variety. These buildings need to integrate with the immediate context and connect with the local socio and cultural conditions, especially at ground level, to contribute to making a sense of place.

Skyring ExteriorTaller buildings create great opportunities for developers who can appreciate and respond to this challenge. If you take an ordinary six storey development and compress the footprint of the design so the building goes up an additional 12–15 storeys leaving space at ground level on the site that can be used for retail and recreation, you not only create a better living environment, you also create a more marketable project that contributes to the overall richness of the city.

The outcome of taller developments should allow for a better ground plane/public realm scenarios that create a village-like feel. I believe there needs to be a balance between open space and density.

It is also beneficial for the location of taller buildings to coincide with public transport nodes. In Asia, developers do this well – maximising buildings around transport hubs to facilitate the residents’ need. We are starting to more of this happening here.
How can developers make sure that taller developments have wide appeal to the market?
I think these types of developments need to have a flexible unit plan that allows for a variety of units. While smaller apartments generally return strong yields for investors, a unit plan that caters to families opens up other markets.

For example, developments may need 3-bed units or 2-bed units with a flexible room that can convert into a third bedroom. Our approach involves working out how we can make the unit plan work for the residents first, and then fitting the form around that. Designing from the inside out.

One of the other keys to designing successful tall developments is including enough high quality outdoor space for the residents, and other places they can gather. Areas such as recreation podiums and pocket parks fit well within a compressed footprint and add a lot of value to the plan by creating vibrant community spaces and a village feel. Another hallmark of our projects is a generous external balcony space that can be used as an indoor/outdoor area.

Within units, access to fresh ventilation, higher ceilings, good natural light and privacy are also important in appealing to the market. We combine these features with high quality, fittings and finishes to give a sense of style that reflects the identity of the development as a whole.

Peninsula Apartments ExteriorHow do you balance the architectural necessity of risk-taking with the risk-averse nature of the construction industry?
We communicate as much as possible with our clients and consultants. We value everyone’s experiences on the team, and pool that knowledge on each project. It is essential for us to clarify the brief so we are all clear on the client’s objective, which is our foremost driver.

We also look at market trends and identify ways to innovate within the design that will be in line with the market. We also tend to test ideas on smaller scale projects before promoting them on larger scale ones. We are always directing what we learn from each project back into the rest of our work.
How do you design for developers needing to meet the challenge of fast changing social trends?
The plan needs to be flexible. I already mentioned that designing some units for families makes good sense, and I would say families moving into apartments in Brisbane is a growing trend. It used to be very much a lifestyle for singles and couples, and while that is still the same, there’s been a cultural change that it is making it more attractive to families, too.

Whilst our recent apartment designs cater largely for couples, dual occupants, or single person households, we try to create planning scenarios within our buildings that allow for flexibility of unit types. This allows for room modules to be added, to create apartments that families can occupy.

I also travel regularly around Australia, and in Europe and Asia to get a feel for emerging trends and new technologies so I can bring that into our work here in Brisbane. In particular, there’s a lot happening in Singapore at the moment, which we have researched. Of course, it has a not too dissimilar climate and lots of tall buildings!

ResidentialAustraliaConstructionConstructionSector
AUTHOR
Staff Writer
"TheUrbanDeveloper.com is committed to delivering the latest news, reviews, opinions and insights into the best of urban development from Australia and around the world. "
More articles by this author
ADVERTISEMENT
TOP STORIES
Stockland bumps up its apartment pipeline in melbourne and sydney
Exclusive

Stockland Re-Enters Density in $5bn Apartment Play

Renee McKeown
4 Min
Woolloongabba Precinct Vulture St
Exclusive

Brisbane Developer in Cross River Rail Compensation Tussle

Clare Burnett
4 Min
The Mondrian Gold Coast hotel's food and beverage is driving profits
Exclusive

Touch, Taste, Theatre: What’s Driving Mondrian’s Success

Renee McKeown
6 Min
Fortis’ display suites are designed as brand environments first, with tactile details and curated design to build buyer confidence before project specifics.
Exclusive

Relevant or Redundant: Will Tech Kill Display Suites?

Vanessa Croll
7 Min
Exclusive

Missing Heart: Why The Gold Coast Needs a CBD

Phil Bartsch
7 Min
View All >
Aerial view of Caboolture and Bruce highway to Brisbane with Bribie Island Road crossing, Queensland, Australia
Policy

Queensland’s $2bn Push Opens New Housing Front

Vanessa Croll
South Melbourne social housing precinct
Affordable & Social Housing

South Melbourne Housing Precinct Revamp Takes Next Step

Leon Della Bosca
JQZ Parramatta EDM
Residential

JQZ Plots 10-Storey Addition to Parramatta ‘Auto Alley’ Plans

Clare Burnett
The Sydney developer is pushing ahead with a project it picked up following the collapse of Dyldam in 2020....
LATEST
Aerial view of Caboolture and Bruce highway to Brisbane with Bribie Island Road crossing, Queensland, Australia
Policy

Queensland’s $2bn Push Opens New Housing Front

Vanessa Croll
2 Min
South Melbourne social housing precinct
Affordable & Social Housing

South Melbourne Housing Precinct Revamp Takes Next Step

Leon Della Bosca
2 Min
JQZ Parramatta EDM
Residential

JQZ Plots 10-Storey Addition to Parramatta ‘Auto Alley’ Plans

Clare Burnett
3 Min
Stockland bumps up its apartment pipeline in melbourne and sydney
Exclusive

Stockland Re-Enters Density in $5bn Apartment Play

Renee McKeown
4 Min
View All >
ADVERTISEMENT
Article originally posted at: https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/articles/qa-shane-plazibat-plazibat-architects