Green luxury on offer as Crown seeks Mastery buyers

Crown Group has revealed its latest development.

Mastery by Crown Group, is a collaboration between Japanese architect Kengo Kuma and award-winning local architect Koichi Takada, who has worked before with the developer.

The five-building development has its centrepiece the building by Kengo Kuma, an eye-catching 20-storey tower featuring a striking plant-filled, green exterior designed to emulate a stacked forest.

The remaining four buildings consist three buildings designed by Koichi Takada Architects and a building designed by Sydney-based architects Silvester Fuller.

Crown Group chairman and CEO Iwan Sunito said his vision for Mastery by Crown Group was for it to become a vibrant and diverse community.

He expects between 60 percent and 70 percent will be local buyers.

Located at 48 O’Dea Avenue Waterloo, Mastery by Crown Group will comprise 384 luxury apartments.

There will be resort-style residents amenities including an infinity-edge cantilevered rooftop pool, gym and community room and a ground-floor retail precinct comprising a mix of restaurants, cafes and shops.

Crown Group will begin accepting expressions of interest later this week with apartment sales to begin November 17.

Construction is scheduled in various stages for completion by 2021.

Since Sunito co-founded Crown Group with business partner Paul Sathio in 1996, Crown Group has since built a portfolio of projects under construction and in the pipeline worth $5 billion.

“With Mastery by Crown Group, we are creating a new urban hub,” Mr Sunito said.

It was a great coup to have both Kengo Kuma and Koichi Takada collaborating on the project, Mr Sunito said.

“Kengo Kuma and Koichi Takada each have their own unique style and ethos and are true leaders in their field, renowned for their creativity,” Mr Sunito said.

Kengo Kuma founded Kengo Kuma and Associates, Inc. in his home nation Japan in 1990. Last year the company made its first foray into Australia designing The Darling Exchange, a six-storey public building in Darling Harbour followed by a 25-storey hotel in Sydney’s Circular Quay.

Kengo studied at Columbia University in New York City and made last year’s Dezeen Hot List.

The “stacked forest” apartment building at the heart of Mastery by Crown Group will be Kengo Kuma and Associates’ first residential project in Australia.

“Our intention is to give a warm and a natural atmosphere to the community with unique design strategies,” Mr Kuma said of the 19-storey residential tower.

“The upper volume of the tower seamlessly transforms into the lower part of the stepped terraces in order to create an intimacy between the building scale and the pedestrian scale on the street level.

“Eaves wrapping the façade are covered by sticks which give a warm impression of the wood to the façade.

“The entire façade becomes a vertical urban forest by having vegetation on each eave,” Mr Kuma added.

Japanese-born Sydney-based architect Koichi Takada has designed three of the five buildings at Mastery by Crown Group.

Takada began his career in Tokyo and moved to Sydney in 1997. His firm Koichi Takada Architects has won multiple awards for its residential, retail and hospitality designs.

“It is my honour to work alongside Kuma sensei, the Japanese master of architecture. It is a dream come true,” Mr Takada said.

“I drew on an idea of ‘green luxury,’ finding inspiration in nature. Each building is designed with a ‘human touch’ to express its organic and distinct architectural character.

“Responding to Kengo Kuma’s vision for the tallest of the five buildings, I am excited to design three low-rise buildings that create a dynamic architectural dialogue within the precinct,” Mr Takada added.

Mastery by Crown Group sits within the City of Sydney’s Green Square redevelopment precinct; 5km from Sydney’s CBD, 3km from UNSW and 7km from Sydney’s Airport.

With more than 40,000 jobs expected to be created in the Green Square area by 2030, the development will be home to hundreds of new Waterloo residents when completed in 2021.

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