The Rose Bay Apartments project comprises 11 residential units, 2 shops and a basement carpark on a compact urban site.
The plan form of the building is a T form providing all units with cross ventilation. On each typical floor, two units face the street as a continuous street wall in accordance with Woollahra Council’s DCP for Rose Bay (also prepared by Hill Thalis). The upper levels have views towards the harbour and the leafy elevated outlook towards Vaucluse. Roof top terraces are provided to upper level apartments of the building. A third unit to the rear of the property is liberated from the property boundaries and shares no common walls with its neighbours – looking towards the extensive harbour and city views to the northwest.
The pedestrian entry sequence provides a variety of spatial experiences on the approach to the lobby area. Two light wells penetrate the ground floor and provide natural light and ventilation to the ground floor and carpark. A small landscaped court provides a pleasant outlook from the lobby located at the centre of the plan.
The project was undertaken for clients who retained the property as a long term family investment, and therefore durability, maintenance and ongoing costs in the design and selection of materials and finishes were important considerations. The exterior of the building is comprised of:
- Face brickwork and exposed structural concrete, which is expressed as a portal where the building meets the street and the rear;
- Infill areas of pre-painted fibre cement panel;
- Structural Steel and Metalwork frames inserted into or over the brickwork portal of the building to provide a frame for sunscreening louvres and balustrades and finer expression of the building where it meets the public faces of the allotment.
The interior is made up of more conventional finishes such as rendered walls, steel door frames, plasterboard ceilings and tiled floors and walls to wet areas. Particular attention has been placed on how these materials meet. The implication of this approach is a greater degree of resolution in the setout during the structural trades to provide a highly resolved interior and exterior expression of the building without the use of elaborate applied finishes.
