Urbanest / Bates Smart

Architects: Bates Smart
Location: Sydney, Australia
Project Team: Damien Abicic, Sylvia Vasak, Olga Kambas, Laura Severino
Project Director: Guy Lake
Project Architect: Basil Richardson
Project Designer: Kellie Payne
Interior Architect: Ann Ronay
Project area: 8,094 sqm
Project year: 2010
Photographs: Richard Glover

The project is located in central Sydney and has been designed to create a lively, contextual building that reflects both its use as student accommodation and the character of the area.

The 16-storey ‘L’ shaped building accommodates 334 students in four to six bedroom cluster apartments arranged to maximise the number of apartments with northern aspect and dual orientation. Communal recreation facilities are arranged around a courtyard at ground floor with a single level basement accommodating plant space and bicycle parking.

The building form acknowledges the site’s corner location and has been designed to reinforce the surrounding scale and character by aligning the tower setback with the adjacent buildings.

Modular prefabricated wall and window panels are repeated in an alternating pattern across the facade to create a dynamic composition, with expressed horizontal band at floor level providing the building with a sense of scale and horizontal expression.

The full height window panels increase the sense of space within the bedrooms and are divided into a fixed clear glass panel and an operable coloured glass panel. The brightly coloured glass panels are inspired by the surrounding context and reflect the youthful vitality of student life.