MAC Residences

MAC Residences exemplifies how excellent apartment living can be defined, as Sydney positions itself to become a high-density city.

From the architect:

MAC Residences is the first building to complete in the renewed Ivanhoe Estate, delivering 269 homes and a childcare centre in Macquarie Park. The tower stands at Ivanhoe’s highest point and serves as a gateway to the future Midtown MacPark precinct.

“MAC Residences sets the precedent for the design quality of the new Midtown MacPark neighbourhood. The architecture lays out apartments that are great places to live, while helping the tower to create a sense of place for the neighbourhood,” says Bates Smart Director Matthew Allen.

Its calm architecture, efficient floorplan and clever ground level interface sets a high bar for Ivanhoe’s 23 remaining buildings that, once built, will form a new high density mixed-use, mixed-tenure neighbourhood of 3,500 residences.

The characteristics of the site greatly influenced the tower’s architecture. Holding the entrance corner to the new neighbourhood, the site is nearly 25 metres higher than the Estate’s lowest point. 

Due to this crossfall, the entry road along MAC Residences’ eastern edge drops by nearly 10 metres, delivering a flatter main high street through the rest of the precinct. The tower responds to this fall with a triple level base that visually reads as two storeys from most sides, by stepping in elevation.

The base of the tower organises the childcare, two residential entries, parking and circulation. Lower ground sits level with the new main street, which will be heavily pedestrianised once the precinct is complete. Here, an arrival plaza fronts the tower to help it better interface with the neighbourhood. Stairs from the plaza lead up to a residential lobby, and a smaller lobby provides access to the childcare. 

The building’s carpark entry tucks into the lowest point on site.
The childcare occupies the interstitial upper ground level, above the main axis, and below the site’s northern edge. This clever use of space creates shelter for the childcare, away from the busy streets, and allows a large outdoor play area to exist on top of the carpark entry roof.

The tower rises 23 storeys, offering 269 apartments including 23 wheelchair-accessible units. Floorplates are designed as two linear bars with rounded corners. Apartments are planned in tandem with the form so that amenity is maximised. 

Two full-height creases give the tower vertical articulation and optimise privacy, solar access and natural ventilation. Double storey voids punctuate the elevation at the ends of the corridors. These voids house vertical gardens that stack up the tower’s height, giving residents visual access to green space that’s typically scant in high-rise living.