View was conceived as a design excellence competition for a mixed use tower within the Rockdale Town Centre. It aimed to encapsulate and extend the vibrant character of the existing low scale stock and present in an iconic form, the ambitions of its future character. The development was to serve as a catalyst for the redevelopment of Rockdale’s southern industrial edge.
As a studio, we sought to explore the latent potential for innovation in multiple dwelling housing, to provide homes that were economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable and provide an appropriate gateway building into an aspirational town centre.
The result is an elegant 11 storey two tower form that provides 91 high quality residential apartments, and 615sqm of active ground floor retail. At heart of the development is an open breezeway, which compositionally unites the towers whilst providing residents of the building new social opportunities and passively reducing both their and the buildings overall environmental impact.
The initial brief required us to design a solution which implemented economic, social and environmental sustainability design principles whilst enhancing the overall design aesthetic.
Environmental sustainability can be seen in the decision to orient the building along the sites east west axis, and the insertion of a central breezeway, which maximized the number of units oriented towards the sun and away from the existing noise pollution from the highway and railway. The passive principles of orientation and massing manipulation were organized to provide a surplus of natural day light and solar access into the primary living spaces and external living areas, thus reducing the occupant’s reliance on artificial lighting, heating and cooling throughout the year.
With ambitions for societal inclusion and access, VIEW provides a broad variety of apartment types for diverse user groups and family types. Smaller apartments are provided for first homebuyers or retirees, whilst larger 3 bedroom apartments are provided for growing families. A selection of apartments is suitable for individuals living with a disability. Put simply, VIEW ensures the provision of equitable and accessible housing.
On a compromised site, sandwiched between a busy arterial road, a railway line, and directly under a flight path, the technical considerations though complex, were skillfully curated, transforming inherent constraints into poetic design solutions that helped deliver a sophisticated, confident and elegant scheme.
The outcome is an architecture that exceeds the standards set within market housing in Sydney’s outer ring suburbs, an elegant building in form, appropriate for its time, purpose and context.
At the heart of the development is an open breezeway, which compositionally unites the towers whilst practically allowing residents to turn their backs away from the compromised environment. This maximises the quantum of north facing apartments for optimum orientation and amenity, allowing the building to breathe whilst capturing distant city views for maximum commercial appeal. The breeze- way is veiled with a metallic golden screen derived from the organic lines of neighbouring Botany Bay. This formal gesture is reinforced with an overlay for social interaction. Bridges and voids weave through the space and connect vertically dispersed communal courtyards. These green spaces are raised for protection from the harshness of the ground plane and act as an environmental filter and a quiet space for retreat.
The project is a lesson in prioritising design to maximise potential.
