Housing people not cars.

A car park sitting at the base of a 37-storey tower had an incredible outlook and guaranteed solar access in the centre of the CBD. The heritage listed State Library of Victoria sits opposite the site. Not only does it provide a beautiful aspect — it could never be built out. Solar access is guaranteed in perpetuity. It was just too good to pass up.

Gripped between a commercial plinth with multi-storey car park and a residential tower above, QV8 is the adaptation of a disused car parking level into eight bespoke apartments. The project is an opportune appropriation of an environmentally counter-intuitive typology: the inner city car park, and provides a new precedent for urban infill housing. By establishing luxuriously deep north facing balconies and circulation edged with vegetation, QV8 will flourish over time to create a ‘green band’, providing lush material relief amongst the hard-edged streetscape.

Team:

Architects: Breathe Architecture 

Other Participants: May Constructions, Rush Wright Associates

Photographer: Peter Clarke