The Rose Bay Apartments project comprises 11 residential units, 2 shops and a basement car park on a compact urban site.
The plan of the building is a T form that gives all units cross-ventilation. On a typical floor, 2 units face the street as a continuous street wall, in keeping with Woollahra Council’s development control plan for Rose Bay.
Image credit: Brett Boardman. Image source: Hill Thalis A+UP. 
Image credit: Brett Boardman. Image source: Hill Thalis A+UP. 
Image credit: Brett Boardman. Image source: Hill Thalis A+UP. 
Image credit: Brett Boardman. Image source: Hill Thalis A+UP. 
Image credit: Brett Boardman. Image source: Hill Thalis A+UP.
Leafy harbour views
The upper levels have views towards the harbour and the leafy elevated outlook towards Vaucluse. Upper level apartments of the building have rooftop terraces.
A third unit to the rear of the property is free from the property boundaries and shares no common walls with its neighbours. It looks towards the extensive harbour and city views to the northwest.
Light and ventilation
The entry on foot provides a variety of spatial experiences on the approach to the lobby area. Two light wells penetrate the ground floor and give the ground floor and car park natural light and ventilation. A small, landscaped court creates a pleasant outlook from the lobby at the centre of the plan.
Financial sustainability
Durability, maintenance and ongoing costs were important considerations for the client in the design and selection of materials and finishes.
The exterior of the building includes:
- face brickwork and exposed structural concrete, which forms 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. These provide a frame for sun-screening 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. The design pays particular attention to how these materials meet. The implication of this approach is a greater degree of resolution in the set out during the work of structural trades. This provides a highly resolved interior and exterior expression of the building without the use of elaborate applied finishes.