The Moorings is a new residential apartment development in Martha Cove, Victoria, embodying waterfront living at its best. Fronting directly onto Marina Martha Cove with spectacular views of Anchorage Park at the rear, the apartments are part of the Martha Cove Development Plan designed by Fender Katsalidis Architects (FKA), which includes plazas, green spaces, restaurants, retail and a variety of residential developments, from townhouses to The Moorings.

The talented team at Bayley Ward Architects brought FKA’s design intent for The Moorings to life, with absolute style and attention to detail.

“Since this was the first building of the Martha Cove Development, we wanted it to be a flagship for what’s to come through the development as far as a quality and design standard is concerned,” Ron von Felden, Project Leader - Architecture, Bayley Ward Architects explained.

Welcoming the owners and their guests to the building is a stunning brick inlay façade that complements the warm, yet restrained palette of natural materials used on the inside. The open plan layout bathes the apartments in natural light and extends the indoors to the outside, offering views over Marina Martha Cove, Port Phillip Bay and surrounds.

FKA’s design intent was to create a European heritage style building with a modern twist, and to celebrate the stunning foreshore and boardwalk.

“To reflect this intent, we wanted honesty in the materials. So we used raw materials like concrete, galvanised steel and brick; we really wanted to reinforce that rawness and the handcrafted elements,” von Felden says.

Since most of the building was being constructed using precast concrete, Euro Precast suggested the brick inlay system from Robertson Facade Systems for the façade to achieve efficiencies and deliver a high quality result.

“I’d seen the brick inlay used in the past, and have always wanted to use it. And it was just perfect for this project. The building follows the crescent shape of Martha Cove, so we put a lot of thought into how the breakup of those panels could be used to subtly show that curve along the foreshore. And also to reflect it on the landside, which has a park and a plaza across the road. The breakup of those panels and the use of brick inlay allowed us to effectively express that curve,” von Felden explained.

Significant time was invested to make the panels look seamless across the entire length of the building. “We worked hard on those precast joins to get the brick tiles down to an absolute minimum of mortar joints to 10-15mm, so you don’t read the junctions between the panels,” von Felden said.

The choice of brick tile all came down to aesthetics – Bayley Ward selected a Rustic brick tile blend from Robertson’s Building Products.

“We love the variation across the tile; it’s not uniform at all. The Rustic Red gives the variation and the apricot tones add a beautiful highlight,” he added.

The final design outcome has met the expectations of everyone, especially the developer, Balmain.

Photographer: Emma Cross