Canvas | bureau^proberts
Canvas redefines apartment living in suburban Brisbane, blending urban sophistication with suburban tranquility. The architecture of Canvas adopts a neighbourhood centred, landscape led approach that draws connections between an organic form and the characteristic street trees of Bulimba. The curved concrete exterior imparts a sense of substance and symbolises a meticulous effort to form living spaces that seamlessly integrate with the landscape. The project addresses density while prioritising the importance of interior and communal design elements, such as the engineered internal staircase enhancing light, ventilation, and access within the spaces. The rooftop, recognised as a prime opportunity for amenity provision, stands out as a communal retreat. A collaborative approach with consultants is evident in the meticulous formation of the staircase and concrete formwork. Canvas transcends conventional suburban developments, embodying a unique blend of architectural innovation, thoughtful design, and community centric living that sets a new standard for contemporary suburban apartment living.
Mari-Mari-Ba – Affordable Housing | Deicke Richards
Mari-Mari-Ba is a regeneration of Joyce Wilding Hostel, which served as a refuge for vulnerable First Nations women and children since the 1970s. The development provides 33 residential units within a series of two storey buildings wrapped around a central landscaped courtyard. A community hub building at the front of the site provides support services for the residents at ground level with units above. The Mari-Mari-Ba site has an extensive First Nations history, providing needed support services throughout its existence, both directly in terms of accommodation and support services, but also as a safe community space.
Deicke Richards was involved early in developing the initial project brief and master plan in consultation with the Department of Communities, Housing and Digital Economy and the operators, the Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Community Health Service (ATSICHS).
After extensive community consultation, the centre has been renamed Mari-Mari-Ba or place of the porcupine or echidna.
Mundingburra Housing | Counterpoint Architecture
Mundingburra Housing is an exemplar regional public housing project that delivers 18 new homes in Townsville. The project responds directly to its specific surrounding context and aims to create opportunities for both individual identity and a sense of community for its residents.
A landscaped communal space is at the heart of the scheme. All homes are linked to this open space both visually and through pedestrian walkways. This space is intended to foster a sense of community and create opportunities for casual interaction between residents.
Building forms and materiality also directly reference precedents found in the surrounding postwar suburban context and splashes of colour have been selectively introduced into the covered outdoor spaces to further reinforce a sense of individual identity for each of the homes, as well as to enliven and further de-institutionalise the overall complex.
Rivière | Bates Smart
Rivière adds a striking presence to its clifftop location in Brisbane’s Kangaroo Point. The sawtooth tower references the natural faceted forms of the neighbourhood’s cliffs. Along with an alternating pattern of outboard living spaces and balconies, the form opens up views of the river, Botanic Gardens and the city’s rapidly changing skyline.
The tower’s unique façade combines board marked concrete, breezeblock, and glazed brick. Apartments are planned to maximise spatial efficiency, views, natural light and cool summer breezes. Native planting weaves through the entire building, starting at the entry and culminating on the impressive communal rooftop, making Rivière feel like an oasis within its urban context.
Interiors are refined and elegant with resort-like amenities. The spacious lobby doubles as a social meeting place and flexible workspace. A gym, pool, theatre room and wine room mean residents won’t need to leave home when they want to work out, relax or entertain.
Caboolture Social Housing | Push Architecture
Caboolture Social Housing is an apartment building reimagined as a totally breathable structure. All apartments are accessed from a central landscaped courtyard that ventilates each single loaded dwelling wing. Each apartment is bookended with two outdoor, secured balcony/courts that overlook landscape and provide opportunity for full air flow throughout the interiors.
The driving idea is to promote real cross ventilation to all apartments whilst having a communal landscape enjoyed by all residents. This is a building that breathes. The secure entry courts to all units enable windows and doors to fully open into these spaces maintaining full security and privacy to residents from the communal atrium courtyard.
The materiality is robust with the brutality of the solid forms softened with a sunny colour palette and the breeze screens. Powder coated aluminum gates are the secure entries at all apartments, and elsewhere provide a striped sunlit quality to the communal access balconies.
The Ninth Middle Ridge | Cox Architecture
The Ninth was developed for Aura, a private operator of Independent Living design on an existing 18 hole Golf course. It occupies an underused site in the northeastern corner of Middle Ridge Golf Club comprising 74 independent retirement living units apportioned across three buildings.
The proposal was structured around the creation of a village green at the heart of the three buildings.
Pedestrian access is organised under sheltered links to promote social activity, community and connectedness between residents. The village green looks out over the putting greens of the golf course and reciprocal relationship of views and backdrop are formed.
The stepped buildings use language of brick screening elements to direct views.
The scheme minimises the removal of existing vegetation and maximise views to the course and Silver Ridge beyond. The project creates a community identity within the site and has a symbiotic relationship with the Club offering shared services.
The Oxlade | bureau^proberts
Conceived as a response to one of Brisbane’s most established river edge streets and the progressive shifting patterns of living and density in Southeast Queensland, The Oxlade is designed to strike a balance between the amenity of the single detached home and the luxury of a contemporary apartment building. The grand, subtropical quality of communal spaces bestows a sense of grandeur through the use of landscape, natural stone and the incorporation of public art particularly evident in the courtyard foyer space where the Water Mall provides an atmospheric coolth at arrival and frames the river beyond. This innate connection to the river and New Farm is carried through each residence with free flowing, light filled spaces purposely orientated to embrace views of the river, parklands, or city. Four separate floor plates across conjoined buildings allow light, landscape, and ventilation around the perimeter of all apartments, replicating qualities of the detached subtropical home.
Upper House | Koichi Takada Architects
Upper House is a dynamic, residential high-rise that contributes to the Brisbane skyline in a way that captures the city’s spirit and showcases the distinctive beauty of Brisbane’s tropical landscape. It signals a new era in urban design, where connection to nature, quality design, resident wellbeing and environmental sustainability align.
Visually, ‘architectural roots’, inspired by the native Moreton Bay Fig tree, take us on a journey from Australia’s ancient past at its base in the form of a five Storey indigenous artwork by Judy Watson up to the future of vertical living, where wellbeing and nature are incorporated into high-rise living.
Upper House is an opportunity to encourage dialogue about the past and to reflect on the present. Koichi Takada Architects’ belief is that respect for people and planet should be the building blocks of our future.
VIDA | Hollindale Mainwaring Architecture
Vida is situated on a hemispherical shaped site within the urban inner ring of the CBD of North Lakes a satellite city north of Brisbane. Offering an alternative to high rise urban consolidation it is a centrally located low-rise medium density residential enclave of 40 dwellings per hectare. It is an ‘urban island’ surrounded by urban connector roads, bus station, parks and lakes and consists of 96 town houses with 10 different typologies. The varying floor plan configurations giving demographic diversity and response to varying context, aspect, orientation, vista opportunities and home office synergies. The architectural tectonics responds to these considerations. Besides privacy and sun-control, external ‘giant’ perf louvres, colored screens, shade patterning and varying articulation provides visual activation to the streetscape.
Vida is a transit orientated development with a bus interchange immediately adjacent to the SE. Acoustic attenuation was applied to the town houses affected by the bus location.
White Main Beach | WMK Architecture
White Main Beach epitomizes coastal luxury, embracing stunning ocean, hinterland, and Gold Coast views. Inspired by the coastal environment, our architectural design blends modernity with sculptural elegance, enhancing Main Beach’s skyline while introducing a new level of sophistication. The tower’s distinctive silhouette features oversized cantilever bullnose balconies, a prominent crown, and an iconic entry leg, contributing to its cohesive and elegant aesthetic.
Meticulous planning optimizes views, sunlight and ventilation, with main living spaces and decks oriented towards the north and primary areas strategically positioned to capture ocean vistas. A lush subtropical podium houses communal amenities, including a 25m lap pool, teppanyaki bar, and gym, while carefully selected materials reflect the coastal landscape both externally and internally. With a clear vision from the outset, our project sets a new standard for luxury living, embodying the essence of Gold Coast sophistication in White Main Beach.