This project is a commercial building in a historic Brisbane suburb that seeks to mediate between the suburb’s original intimate scale and its newer, bulkier urban developments.
The location of the proposed building is Spring Hill, Brisbane’s oldest suburb. The site is a small space with an existing workers cottage on a busy thoroughfare. Best described by the architect, it is “a 19th century remnant in an otherwise densely developed commercial, government and health precinct, dominated in particular by the massive department of transport and main roads building developed by Karl Langer in the 1960s, and the typical dull late 20th century institutional architecture of St. Andrews Hospital”.
The proposal is for an integrated development that involves the restoration of the existing cottage and a new six-storey “mini tower”. The tower is intended to be discreet from the streetscape, with a form that references both the traditional cottages and the late 20th century contemporary buildings. Brisbane’s sub-tropical climate is also addressed through the design's deep sunshading and transparency.
Conceived as a “soft” intervention in the existing urban context, materials include white off-form concrete, green tinted glass and off-white aluminium sunshading.
