Guansheng Australia pushes student accommodation into Sydney's CBD
City of Sydney will assess in earnest 311-317 Sussex Street which is a freshly lodged application that intends to bring a substantial slab of boarding house accommodation to Sydney's CBD.
Guansheng Australia Pty Ltd is backing the student housing hub for the site in light of Sydney's pressing requirement for additional student accommodation. 83 boarding house rooms within the part 15 storey and part 16 storey tower will sit below 9 private apartments, including a 4 bedroom dwelling.
Costed at $48 million, the building at the western edge of the Sydney CBD also aims to meet standards for the design and construction of new generation boarding houses. FJMT conceived the tower which is incorporated behind the existing non-heritage listed warehouse facade.
Externally the tower expresses "a simple palette of materials has been selected which reflects the robust character of Sussex Street. Each element of the proposal is expressed with a specific materiality to provide a variation in scale and a diversity in character.
The fine grain of the brick warehouses is reflected in the new masonry screen to Sussex Street - blades are angled to provide privacy to the Apartments whilst providing access to local views of the streetscape."
According to FJMT 107 beds spread over 5 separate apartment types are included, ranging from studios to shared apartments with a common living area. The design is also flush with communal facilities such as lounges, a study/work hub, games zone, breakout spaces and a common laundry facility.
Boarding room internal living spaces begin from 12 square metres and increase to 22 square metres, with common living areas on each level. Typical apartments follow, with a limited number spanning two levels.
Sydney, like Brisbane and Melbourne is enjoying a boom in student accommodation projects.
Most recently Singapore's Wee Hur linked with Intergen Property Group to expand their portfolio across Australia which, including a recent Redfern site acquisition that is expected to see more than 500 beds included. Wee Hur's Australian footprint also covers Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane and Perth.
Seen above is a quartet of current student accommodation projects representative of the surge of the type across Sydney. The University’s Regiment Redevelopment Project is seeing a new building rise on the corner of City Road and Darlington Road, whilst the Wee Hur Redfern development will also target the University of Sydney and the University of Technology Sydney.
Further afield Rothelowman has designed a new student accommodation project in Macquarie Park for the purposes of serving the nearby Macquarie University.