Arkadia / DKO Architecture + Breathe Architecture

Arkadia / DKO Architecture + Breathe Architecture

Arkadia / DKO Architecture + Breathe Architecture - Interior Photography, ArchArkadia / DKO Architecture + Breathe Architecture - Exterior Photography, Windows, Brick, FacadeArkadia / DKO Architecture + Breathe Architecture - Exterior Photography, Windows, Brick, FacadeArkadia / DKO Architecture + Breathe Architecture - Exterior Photography, Windows, FacadeArkadia / DKO Architecture + Breathe Architecture - More Images+ 18

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Arkadia / DKO Architecture + Breathe Architecture - Exterior Photography, Facade
© Tom Ross

Text description provided by the architects. Arkadia started as a series of considerations that questioned the nature of multi-residential development in Australia;

Arkadia / DKO Architecture + Breathe Architecture - Exterior Photography, Windows, Brick, Facade
© Tom Ross

Community: Arkadia is a result of considered community engagement, and a holistic approach to creating a meaningful and accessible space for all in Alexandria. 

Environment: Climate change is the single biggest issue facing humanity in the 21st century. Arkadia was to be fossil fuel-free, and the building allows for a carbon-free future. 

Architecture: We felt strongly about creating a sense of place. The integration of green space and architecture via communal areas within the building is focussed on shared experiences. Spaces to nurture and nourish with shared vegetable gardens, safe play areas for families, rooftop dining with city-wide views, meeting neighbours on Huntley Green.

Arkadia / DKO Architecture + Breathe Architecture - Image 17 of 23
Landscape ground plan

With the needs of the community as a key consideration, Huntley Green becomes a neighbourhood park to be enjoyed by all. Key pedestrian links are encouraged from The Huntley Green through to the broader parkland of Sydney Park via exuberant timber-lined arches, which align with the existing thoroughfares of Euston Lane and Lawrence Street. 

Arkadia / DKO Architecture + Breathe Architecture - Exterior Photography, Windows, Facade
© Tom Ross

Arkadia unashamedly references the heritage of its site. The brickwork throughout links the industrial past - as the former home to the NSW Brickworks Company -to the present, echoing the materiality of adjacent buildings. Featured in the park is an artwork by Jane Cavanough, an interpretation of the local brickwork chimneys in the area and which once stood on site.

Arkadia / DKO Architecture + Breathe Architecture - Interior Photography, Arch
© Tom Ross

A curvilinear building of 152 dwellings, it is divided into four identities, named after key brick makers in the area. Each lobby entrance’s brickwork has a conspicuous pattern of its own.

Arkadia / DKO Architecture + Breathe Architecture - Image 20 of 23
North elevation
Arkadia / DKO Architecture + Breathe Architecture - Image 18 of 23
First floor plan

With a façade made up of nearly half a million recycled bricks, it is articulated with deep reveals and solar shading to the north and west. The window openings are punched into the facade allowing cross ventilation, summer shading and winter sun penetration. The patina of the recycled brick is integral to the design language – a sustainable reusing of material, indicating an earlier form. The texture of the recycled material accented by the new. 

Arkadia / DKO Architecture + Breathe Architecture - Exterior Photography, Windows, Brick, Facade
© Martin Siegner

Arkadia has been designed to minimise its environmental footprint; by harnessing solar heat gain in winter with a thermally efficient envelope of recycled bricks; low maintenance and low embodied energy materials; and drought-tolerant planting.

Arkadia / DKO Architecture + Breathe Architecture - Image 22 of 23
Sections

Each building has its own lift core, communal vegetable garden and access to the rooftop. The rooftop covers some 50% of the footprint area and is holistically designed with brick as the primary material, other landscape materials complimenting, or contrasting.

Arkadia / DKO Architecture + Breathe Architecture - Exterior Photography, Windows, Facade, Courtyard
© Tom Ross
Arkadia / DKO Architecture + Breathe Architecture - Exterior Photography, Brick, Garden
© Tom Ross

It is a collaboration which aligns closely with what DKO, Breathe, and Oculus believe matters – creative design solutions with a socially and environmentally responsible approach, from project inception, to completion.

Arkadia / DKO Architecture + Breathe Architecture - Exterior Photography, Windows, Facade, Cityscape
© Martin Siegner

Project gallery

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Project location

Address:Alexandria NSW 2015, Australia

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Location to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.
About this office
Cite: "Arkadia / DKO Architecture + Breathe Architecture" 20 May 2020. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/940009/arkadia-dko-architecture-plus-breathe-architecture> ISSN 0719-8884

© Sebastian Mrugalski

Arkadia集合住宅 / DKO Architecture + Breathe Architecture

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