The Finery, Mirvac’s latest inner-city apartment offering
THE 223 APARTMENTS AND TERRACE HOMES ARE LOCATED IN WHAT WAS ONCE A BLACK STACK INDUSTRIAL PRECINCT, NOW TRANSFORMED INTO THE ‘IT’ PART OF THE HARBOUR CITY. IN THIS NEW BEATING HEART OF INNER-CITY WATERLOO, SITS A COLLECTION OF SIX ARTICULATED BUILDINGS AND A COURTYARD GARDEN WITH A TALL CANOPY OF TREES AND LUSH UNDERPLANTING KNOWN AS THE FINERY.
The Finery has a detailed façade inspired by the buildings from Waterloo’s industrial past, combined with the delicate framing of balconies with decorative white brise soleil screens. The exterior finishes are primarily face brick and concrete, in keeping with the area’s industrial past, while deep-toned electro bronze screens, present a contrast in colour and texture that emphasises the evolving sculptural symphony of the area of today.
The primarily brick and concrete exterior is complemented by lobbies incorporating large format vitrified tiles with pressed metal pattern and pavers laid in The Finery’s signature herringbone motif, that tells visitors where once people toiled, they now relax in a citadel of serene elegance.
As mentioned, The Finery owes this design to the gritty industrial heritage of Waterloo, although in this case, reimagined as a graceful collection of six low-rise buildings from four to eight storeys, to create a city village on a human scale while still celebrating its historical significance.
Through its design, “The Finery explores different ways for a new community to build connections and develop a sense of belonging,” says the developer, Mirvac. Then, there is what the developer euphemistically calls ‘the bump factor’ - in other words, stairways deliberately designed as a device to make it easier for residents to meet and get to know each other.
The idea was to not just build apartments but to design a community and as such, The Finery’s diverse offering meets the demands of an equally diverse range of people seeking to make the inner-city their home.
And as with many similar buildings in this growing part of town, at street level, boutique retail spaces will form a new dining precinct, extending Waterloo’s growing reputation as one of the city’s most popular gastronomic destinations.
Mirvac says that it acquired the site from electrical switch makers HPM Legrand in 2014, and it was “an ageing inner-city warehouse that no longer met their requirements and the company wanted to move closer to main arterial routes”.
The site, within the Lachlan Precinct of the Green Square urban renewal area, “lies within the prized Waterloo-danks Street locality, is close to Moore Park and Centennial Park and established shopping at East Village Shopping Centre in Zetland,” notes the developer.
The vision for the project says Mirvac, was to “reinterpret the industrial heritage of Waterloo to create a more human-scale villagelike development that also addressed a lack of green space in the immediate vicinity”.
Clustering buildings around a central courtyard allows light to penetrate deep into the development, while the tall canopy of trees also provide an additional layer of screening and privacy to the ground-level apartments.
This, says Mirvac, has been designed to counter the urban heat island effect of buildings, streets and footpaths while offering residents a calm and contemplative stroll garden.
The landscape design was by Aspect Studio director Sacha Coles and was developed to ensure a harmonious integration of the built and natural environment.
The dense planting of the courtyard, with its native and non-native species, has been designed to counter the urban heat island effect of the inner-city, and creates a welcome ecosystem that promises to be several degrees cooler than the surrounding streets.
This landscaping, says Mirvac, goes well beyond design and planning guidelines and adds a green heart that will not only benefit residents but avoid creation of another temperature hot spot.
Native species that once proliferated in what was a wetland area that thrived well before European settlement have been planted provide a mixed height canopy, combined with ferns and palms.
The hard landscaping has been combined with blocks of sandstone and sawn timber to be used as seating, as once again, a place where residents can meet and greet each other. SUPPLIERS & CONTRACTORS: ASPECT STUDIO ASPECTSTUDIOS.COM/AU MIRVAC ARCHITECTUREANDDESIGN. COM.AU/SUPPLIERS/MIRVAC-GROUP