Isar Apartment Building Conceptual Framework and Sustainability Isar, at 1 Ralph Street, Alexandria comprises of 32 one, two and three bedroom apartments and a café. The brief required a design that would challenge existing ideas and set a new standard for apartment living. Isar brings the ‘Greening of Sydney’ concept to life by extensive greening of rooftop terraces. It takes a leaf from the European concept of rooftop gardens. Patches of grass are transported to the roof and an olive grove graces the roof of the corner building. Other core environmental philosophies are used in tandem such as double sided apartments that have great cross ventilation and living areas orientated to the north and north-west to minimize reliance on air-conditioning and heating. Relationship of Built Form to Context Isar borders the terrace house area of Beaconsfield and semi-industrial landscape of Alexandria. Ideas of row housing and industrial imagery were incorporated into the building. A printing and packaging factory existed previously on the site. From this came ideas of boxes and packaging material imagery that is used in the new building. The roof resembles a lid on a box and the miniorb cladding panels running vertical and horizontal are the corrugated paper. The inner courtyard when viewed from above is a 2 dimensional image of an open box with flaps. Public and Cultural Benefits A café on the north west corner of the site is designed to provide an amenity to the residents of the building and surrounding streets and activates/creates a new

social energy in the neighbourhood. The contemporary architecture brings a new vibrancy to this up and coming area. It is full of playful elements and uses a colour coding system to identify the different styles of apartments. Red is for one-bedroom and the single person hip lifestyle. Grey represents more restraint and is for the two bedroom terraces and green is for the three bedroom garden orientated apartments. The colours humorise an otherwise serious piece of architecture. Cost/Value Outcome The budget for the apartment building was tight and probably the projects greatest challenge as Alexandria is not Elizabeth Bay. That is, buyers in Alexandria can not afford expensive finishes and elaborate detailing. They do however appreciate light, innovation and privacy and ISAR achieves these things due to it’s L-shape resulting in large façade areas which are very private due to the blade walls that were used. Apartments are double sided, and extensive amounts of glass and interesting cladding materials are used. The results are interiors with great aspects and air flow that are very comfortable to live in without the need for air conditioning. 10% Cost cutting was required on this project but we successfully kept the integrity of the building whilst rationalizing structure and finishes. The buyers responded to the design and the building set a new sales record for price/m2 in Alexandria even during the worst residential property downturn in recent history, proving that good design implemented in a practical way works and sells.