Fox Johnston awardwinning rockpool-inspired apartment building
ATHOUGHTFUL SCHEME BY SYDNEYBASED ARCHITECTURE AND INTERIORS PRACTICE FOX JOHNSTON, EVOKING THE CALM REFUGE OFFERED BY ROCK POOLS ALONG SYDNEY’S COASTLINE, HAS WON A DESIGN EXCELLENCE COMPETITION FOR A NEW APARTMENT BUILDING IN THE SYDNEY SOUTHERN BAYSIDE SUBURB OF BRIGHTON-LE-SANDS. The jury, comprising Bob Nation (Chair), Tony Caro, Brian Zuhlaika, John Choi and Ron Keir, unanimously selected the Fox Johnston scheme, having considered submissions from three architecture practices – Carter Williamson Architects, Fox Johnston, and Olsson & Associates Architects.
“We conceived the apartments in this building almost as a series of rockpools: a calm, sunny and protected environment where you can live comfortably on the wild edge of the ocean. Warmed by the sun, out of the wind, but still feeling part of the beautiful coastline experience that is unique to Botany Bay and the surrounding coastline,” says Fox Johnston director, Conrad Johnston.
The site for the new apartment building lies 10km south of Sydney’s CBD, on the western shore of the Captain James Cook-made famous Botany Bay. Fox Johnston’s building takes the form of a carefully sculpted and eroded organic volume, twisting and turning in its intuitive response. It responds to the unique character of its site, providing 34 modern apartments nested behind a set of five historic Victorian-era terraces.
The jury praised Fox Johnston’s winning scheme, noting that it ‘steps outside cookie cutter solutions and achieves a distinct character for each apartment’. Jurors commented favourably on FJ’S ‘use of house design principles in designing the apartment layouts’ and appreciated the high level of landscape integration in the proposal, achieved through wintergardens, courtyards and landscaped terraces, and a shared garden between the old and new buildings.
The site provides expansive views over the water, but also presents significant challenges: solar access is at odds with the view, and its south-west aspect opens it up to wind exposure.
A major road — the Grand Parade — runs adjacent to the site, requiring careful attention to noise mitigation and ventilation. It sits amid larger apartment buildings with a row of Victorian terraces in front, requiring careful consideration of views, privacy and shadowing.
The new building’s organic volume is designed to address the site’s proximity to The Grand Parade, its predominant exposure east overlooking Botany Bay and its proximity to neighbours to the north and west. In response, the form extrudes to the south-east to increase its northerly aperture and further embrace views to Botany Bay and beyond.
This adaptive form is then eroded to open and close in response to its site placement and provide places of calm and shelter within – winter gardens protected from noise and wind, solid walling and sun fins to control privacy and heat load, expansive double glazed apertures to embrace panoramic city and bay views.
A variety of thoughtfully planned one, two and three bedroom apartments sit within this modulated form, offering differing site experiences and offering flexibility in floor plates. Upper floor penthouse apartments are recessed from the northern and eastern face creating a further articulated form that embraces its expansive aspect.
Fox Johnston’s design achieves 82 percent solar access for apartments, including direct sunlight in winter for all units. 100 percent of the apartments are naturally ventilated, with 74 percent cross ventilation across the whole building. Some 23 percent of the building is communal space that receives 100 percent natural light and ventilation.
The ground plane is envisaged as a permeable and interconnected series of spaces linking Princess Lane to the historic terraces, and reinventing the laneway to the rear as a ‘garden mews’, providing a revitalised and activated public domain addition.
FOX JOHNSTON’S BUILDING TAKES THE FORM OF A CAREFULLY SCULPTED AND ERODED ORGANIC VOLUME, TWISTING AND TURNING IN ITS INTUITIVE RESPONSE. IT RESPONDS TO THE UNIQUE CHARACTER OF ITS SITE.
Entry to the new building will be from this ‘garden mews’, providing strong visual links to the proposed central garden hub beyond. This lush garden space is pivotal to the design – inserted between new and old, this space allows the historic terraces to breathe and offers a place of refuge for residents and visitors alike.
The existing historic terraces, part of the original New Brighton Estate, will continue to house commercial spaces and will be repaired and restored. Their rear wings will be re-imagined as the lush garden hub and a continuation of the permeable ground plane offering a quiet sanctuary for the occupants.
A ground level retail space within the building — imagined as a new cafe / wine bar — will open onto this central garden hub as well as the reinvented ‘garden mews’.