After two years of construction, the Trio development in Camperdown, Sydney, has been completed.
Located on the former Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children, Trio comprises 397 one-, two- and three- bedroom apartments, including penthouses with rooftop gardens and a Patrick Blanc-designed 33m vertical garden rising up the side of Trio North.
The design consists of three interlinking residential towers on a sloping site set within a heavily landscaped environment. Fender Katsalidis Architects’ aim was to create a dynamic building form where it would look different every day.
“This has been achieved using a façade louvre system combined with a variety of cladding materials and concrete forms and textures. The richly detailed ‘collage’ façade constantly and subtly shifts as screens and louvres are opened and closed from within the apartments,” Karl Fender says.
What sets the development apart from others is the inclusion of loggias for all apartments — a balcony edged with louvred screens that can be adjusted to filter light or pulled back.
The loggias were finished with timber floors to act as a natural extension to the living areas and bedrooms. “The provision of adaptability from an indoor to an outdoor lifestyle was considered ideal for Sydney’s climate and allows the apartment space to be used to its full potential,” Fender says.
But the loggias posed a problem of how to design and develop an appropriate two-track louvre system which would allow a minimum of a two- thirds clear opening. Fender says this was resolved by introducing a tracking system across solid elements of the façade, which simultaneously created an additional layer of interest in the façade.
The use of colour and different finishes on the façade were a deliberate attempt by the architects to avoid the standard colours and finishes prevalent in the area. For example, Fender Katsalidis Architects added a splash of blue on the façade, standard powdercoat colours were avoided and a unique set of colours were ‘fingerprinted’ from classic car makes.
“The light blue (Azzuro Argentina Metallic) was developed for Maserati and the dark blue (Biarritz Blue Metallic) for Land Rover,” Fender says.
Before construction began, over 500 solid sandstone blocks were removed from the site during the excavation of the basements. Most of the blocks — which weighed 6-7 tonnes — were used by Gosford Quarries for recycling into other sandstone products. The sandstone was also used in the Kur- ring-gai National Park and along the F3 Freeway.
“We had to work out the best way to excavate some 70,000 cubic metres within six months so that construction could commence on time and the impact on the neighbours kept to a minimum,” Craig Elgie says.
Interiors at Trio feature natural timber veneer kitchen cabinets, glass and stone splashbacks and stone bath surrounds. Bi-fold glass doors allow residents to control natural light, ventilation and temperature. Innovative bathrooms have side-by-side shower and bath ‘wet rooms’ and many feature dual access.
“In a typical apartment, we used carpet and tiling as flooring, with timber flooring used in the penthouse apartments. For the windows, louvres and doors, we used glass and aluminium,” Eglie says.
Eglie says although not many out of the ordinary problems were encountered during construction, he did face problems with ensuring acoustic issues with the precast floors were correctly addressed.
“Using precast concrete floors also had its problems as a result of the loss in ceiling space for services. In hindsight, I would not have chosen to use precast for the flooring system for this residential building. I would rather use a conventional pre-stressed concrete floor system,” he says.
Fender says working through a complex design and documentation process is a good way of developing experience and talent within an architectural team.
“The individuals who have worked on Trio started as a relatively young and enthusiastic team. What they produced in terms of documentation and design resolution was extraordinary within an onerous two- year building programme. These individuals have gone on to provide invaluable support across the practice with the knowledge they have gained.”
Stephanie McDonald
