210 Alexandra Parade adds to Clifton Hill's growing design credentials
Late last year Carta Group and Wulff Projects submitted a planning application for an OLA Studio-designed development at 210 Alexandra Parade East Clifton Hill, which has undergone a number of changes to respond to Council and community feedback.
The proposed development is for a 6-storey building comprising of 26 apartments and a resident’s communal workspace at ground floor. The building's design is highly site responsive and employs carefully considered amenity oriented design principles, coupled with a strong ESD focus, located in a mixed-use zone just north of the Eastern Freeway and within close proximity to both Victoria Park and Clifton Hill train stations.
210 Alexandra Parade is expressed as an articulated form that draws inspiration from the original factory while providing a considered building response to both the existing and future context. Additionally, design proposes the adaptive re-use of existing bricks from the original building on-site for communal workspace, lobby feature walls, courtyard paving and landscaping.
Planters & landscaping will be provided to selected balconies and window boxes to aid in softening the building's exterior, while winter gardens have been designed into south facing apartments. Private open space averages in size at approximately 22 sqm with deep soil planting along the northern and eastern boundary.
The ground floor communal workspace ensures the building provides an active frontage to Alexandra Parade.
The design draws upon the architectural character and materiality of the surrounding area while referencing the site's industrial past. The original building is an old red brick Factory which is used to inform the composition of the building mass. The first 4 levels of the proposed design form a red brick podium interpretive of the original brick factory.
The upper levels and form on the eastern boundary employ a fenestrated dark metal cladding that subtly transitions from solid wall to battened screens when positioned in front of openings. The metal is dark and recessive so as to not distract from the strong form of the lower mass. The change of material from white brick to metal also allows us to read the upper levels as one element resulting in a clean and interesting compositional form.
A breakline of glazing is applied between the podium and fifth level to create the illusion that elements of the top level are floating to provide a sense of lightness.
- OLA Studio
The proposal for 210 Alexandra Parade represents the Development Partners' continued focus on facilitating positive change to Clifton Hill, via a very robust design-based agenda with the objective of meeting community expectations of the suburb attracting quality, design-focused developments such as Wulff Projects' 122 Roseneath Street project in partnership with Icon Co and Assemble.
To this end the project team have worked closely with Council to refine the design to address feedback relating to privacy, overlooking, height and building mass, and dwelling diversity. This has resulted in a much stronger composition of elements to provide a positive contribution to the streetscape.
Key Project Features
- Family-focused design, with 90% of apartments containing 2 & 3 bedrooms
- Community design focus with a variety of communal facilities & adept architectural integration
- More than one bike space for every dwelling & one communal scooter space
- Diversity in apartment sizes and types, including 2-storey apartments
- Diverse range of communal facilities for residents including indoor landscaping areas, an integrated laundry and a functional workspace sustainability
- Strong sustainability characteristics with extensive landscaping, abundant natural light & cross-flow ventilation
- No borrowed light to apartments
- Operable louvres to south facade balconies for noise protection from the adjacent freeway
- Provision of infrastructure for electric car charge station
- Rain water harvesting, PV solar panels for common area lighting and power, and 6.9 star average rating
- Pergola to ground floor north facing apartments facilitating indoor-outdoor living.
