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The high land value and small footprint of development sites in inner-urban areas generally present an economic case for single, high-rise, multi-residential buildings with various amenities stacked on each floor. 
However, a number of major brownfield urban renewal areas have recently claimed much larger sites, ones that require an entirely different approach to the design and development of new communities. 
When presented with a large site that is to be designed, built and marketed by a single architect and developer, the opportunity to practice a holistic mix of architecture, town planning and place making bestows a great opportunity for all involved. 
Typically for these sites, the right solution is a ‘campus’ style approach, whereby a group of buildings are designed as part of cohesive, identifiable community. 
RotheLowman has been behind a number of successful campus style developments to date, and we see this typology as a valuable new paradigm for apartment living. 
Along with making full use of a larger development or urban renewal site, campus style developments respond to a consumer demand for a greater sense of community and connectivity in apartment buildings. 
When apartments and amenities such as communal outdoor areas, ground floor hospitality operators and retail tenancies are spread across a number of low to medium rise buildings as opposed to being stacked vertically, the result is a development with a genuine mix of uses and users. 
A strong example is the regeneration of an urban brownfield site is our Abbotsford project on the banks of Yarra River, now home to three complementary developments: Eden, Haven and Sanctuary. 
Working together with the developer, our team planned, designed and delivered a major campus style precinct with strong community spaces set as a priority. 
With a project of this size, we see good design as being equally as much about the space between buildings as the buildings themselves. 
Across the three adjacent buildings, we created a precinct comprising 500 apartments, public plazas with open Wi-Fi, shared workspaces, community garden, alfresco dining, swimming pool, gymnasium and multiple retail tenancies. 
The ground floor amenities such as hospitality outlets and public lobbies interact with the street and are enjoyed by the hundreds of development residents and other locals, blurring the line between the public and private domains. 
Looking at recent successful brownfield development sites in Coburg, East Bentleigh, West End and Marsden Park, we at RotheLowman are confident that campus style development can lead to the best possible outcomes for major renewal sites.

We remain excited by future opportunities to design and develop new residential communities from the ground up.
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chrishayton

Campus style developments: a new model for apartment living

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The increasing density of Australian cities calls for innovative apartments that cater to the market’s diverse range of buyers.

Australia’s ageing population is seeing a maturation of apartment buyers, along with a sustained interested from first home buyers wishing to remain close to city centres.

Acting on strong market demand, ROTHELOWMAN in conjunction with developer Hamton have succeeded in creating Australia’s first ever-convertible apartments. These spaces form part of stage three of the wider Sanctuary on the Park development, located in Abbotsford, Melbourne.

From the beginning, the aim of this project has been to establish an exemplar model for higher density design in inner urban developments. As our population continues to grow, big houses are being traded in for cleverly designed apartments with excellent amenities and proximity to existing infrastructure, entertainment and employment hubs. The goal of Sanctuary has been to meet the needs of modern buyers, with beautiful, functional living spaces, while also establishing a sense of community in the new vertical neighbourhood.

Prior to the design development of the wider project, Hamton commissioned our practice to research small living spaces, in order to develop a truly innovative outcome inspired by global design initiatives.

Our team came to the conclusion that the physical imposition of walls used to subdivide space into different zones was one of the primary constraints in most small living spaces. While defined living spaces have long been a feature of the typical Australian apartment, we were keen to see if this physical space could become more pliable.

These investigations focused on generating a layout capable of expanding and contracting as required, while managing to enhance liveability both spatially and psychologically.

A major concern was how we could achieve movable components that require only minimal effort to transition. Whatever the solution, we knew its success depended on its simplicity. Residents couldn’t be daunted by the task of changing the configuration of their apartment; the process of transforming the space had to be one they were happy to go through regularly.

<figure><a class="colorbox colorbox-insert-image" href="https://res.cloudinary.com/dz9xllyip/image/fetch/q_auto:good/https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/pictures/article-images/jdb_2015-06-10_0081.jpg" rel="gallery-all" title="Inside a completed convertible space apartment. Image courtesy ROTHELOWMAN"><img alt="" class="image-article-full-width-580px" height="389" src="/sites/urban.melbourne/files/styles/article_full_width_580px/public/pictures/article-images/jdb_2015-06-10_0081.jpg?itok=I2FmKmR-" title="Inside a completed convertible space apartment. Image courtesy ROTHELOWMAN" width="580"></a>

<figcaption>Inside a completed convertible space apartment. Image courtesy ROTHELOWMAN</figcaption></figure>Honing the living space down to its essentials, we created the convertible spaces model from the ground up, incorporating multiple space-saving solutions to present a holistic, cohesive design. The end result is a convertible design, capable of increasing living space by up to 70 per cent.

The convertible spaces are designed so that bedroom space can be incorporated into living space as required, and functional areas such as corridors can become usable in living and bedroom areas without compromising on access through the apartment.

By expanding the storage space, introducing a foldup bed and movable joinery, these spaces offer residents the flexibility to extend and define their living space to best suit their lifestyle. Whether it’s socialising or solitude the owner seeks, these spaces can be moulded to suit every mood or occasion.

The interiors of the convertible apartments follow a contemporary design aesthetic, with beautiful finishes that create a light, inviting atmosphere. The finishes are robust with durable moving components and detailed corners chosen specifically to withstand repeated movement and prevent chipping.

Also key to this development was creating a sense of community and fostering social connections within the area. Whilst extensive communal facilities are provided for residents, the masterplan encourages an active dialogue between the development and its wider context.

A new public spine bisects the site, connecting the urbanism of Victoria Street to the tranquil natural landscape of the river corridor. The architecture acts as an emulsifier between the two juxtaposed environments and in doing so promotes accessibility, interaction and engagement on both a resident and public level. As a result, the development has become embedded itself into the local fabric, giving life to a new vertical neighbourhood.

The $412 million project features a total of 567 apartments over 220 metres of mostly north-facing river frontage on a unique bend of the Yarra River. Each of the three main buildings (Eden, Haven and Sanctuary) has 12 storeys, but decrease in height (and storey numbers) like a natural geological formation towards the river and public spaces. The curved outline of the buildings further reflects the contours of riverbanks.

A third of the site has been given over to public spaces and the apartment buildings also feature gardens, lobby bars, a pool, gym, a health and wellbeing centre and even a rooftop cinema.

A dynamic walkway and retail precinct with cafes and boutique retail and office spaces winds between the three buildings and connects Victoria Street with the river. All 16 of these retail spaces have already been sold or leased.

Recognising the varied market of buyers in the Abbotsford area, the development brings together a diverse of housing typologies at a price point that caters to first home buyers and luxury investors alike, ranging from $300,000 to $3.96 million. The mix of one, two and three bedroom apartments are sized between 36 and 425 square metres and appeal to single professionals, downsizing couples and growing city families.

Chris Hayton is a principal at <a href="http://www.rothelowman.com.au/">ROTHELOWMAN</a> with 20 years of experience working on major projects in Australia and Europe.

See "<a href="https://www.urban.com.au/news/inside-australias-first-convertible-apartment">Inside Australia's first convertible apartment</a>" published in July for more images.
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Planning Australia’s first convertible apartments

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Height is perhaps the most contentious of all issues when discussing new building proposals.

Maybe because it is readily quantifiable relative to the surroundings, or because fear of height has become a default response to any new development, it is often debated as a singular issue. Many ignore the other factors that contribute to the appropriateness of building’s design. Such simplistic quarantining of the height debate is often to the detriment of our urban environment.

At its worst, and as highlighted by recent proposed changes to the Victorian planning zones, height becomes a crude and unsophisticated metric by which to measure the merit of development proposals.

In good design the individual parameters that define a proposal are intrinsically related to each other. <a href="https://www.urban.com.au/design">Design</a> should be a holistic response that works intelligently and sensitively in the macro and micro context, fulfilling key, site-specific objectives, of which height is only one.

<a class="colorbox colorbox-insert-image" href="https://res.cloudinary.com/dz9xllyip/image/fetch/q_auto:good/https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/pictures/article-images/Sanctuary_V04_Acacia_Place.jpg" rel="gallery-all" title="Acacia Place - image © ROTHELOWMAN"><img alt="" class="image-article-full-width-580px" src="/sites/urbanmelbourne.info/files/styles/article_full_width_580px/public/pictures/article-images/Sanctuary_V04_Acacia_Place.jpg?itok=a6zS7aJ4" style="height:387px; width:580px" title="Acacia Place - image © ROTHELOWMAN"></a>

As we seek a more sustainable, multi-centred and mixed-use urban environment, limiting density through blanket height controls makes little sense. In doing so, we risk strangling the opportunities to develop more sophisticated and engaging cities.

This is not to say the capacity for any given site to accommodate height is unlimited but that there is greater potential to deliver high-quality urban design and <a href="https://www.urban.com.au/architects">architecture</a> if the designer has flexibility in the distribution of built form across the site.

Height needs to be carefully considered and dealt with sensitively. However, absolute height should not be the arbiter of whether  a design is appropriate or not. Instead the judgment should be made on the quality and appropriateness of the proposal as a whole.

Where skilled designers and planning officers work with an assessment process that uses a holistic, merit-based assessment system, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that the outcome will be beneficial to all. <a href="https://www.urban.com.au/developers">Developers</a> can achieve improved yields, delivering a dynamic, multi layered living environment; planning authorities can have greater confidence, having guaranteed the objectives for specific sites and the city benefits from high quality architecture and urban design.

<a class="colorbox colorbox-insert-image" href="https://res.cloudinary.com/dz9xllyip/image/fetch/q_auto:good/https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/pictures/article-images/rl_fish_bend_1.jpg" rel="gallery-all" title="0-82 Johnson Street - image © ROTHELOWMAN"><img alt="" class="image-article-full-width-580px" src="/sites/urbanmelbourne.info/files/styles/article_full_width_580px/public/pictures/article-images/rl_fish_bend_1.jpg?itok=p-qcuzU9" style="height:309px; width:580px" title="0-82 Johnson Street - image © ROTHELOWMAN"></a>

The great caveat on all of this is design quality.

Our experience suggests that once the designer can demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the planning control objectives for a site or precinct, planning officers are willing to entertain a more liberal interpretation of the preferred outcomes so  long as the proposal achieves those underlying objectives. 

In recent examples, working with the City of Yarra and the  City of Stonnington, <a href="https://www.urban.com.au/architects/rothelowman">ROTHELOWMAN</a> obtained permits for developments that had envelops greater than those suggested by the planning controls because of a demonstrated quality of design. In short, these proposals were entertained because they will make our cities better places to live.

The successful cities of the future will be those that embrace  and facilitate high quality urban design. Australian cities need to evolve if they are to retain their “liveability” in a competitive global market.

In a world where city demographics are increasingly defined by where an individual chooses to go, as opposed to where they need to be, this search for a high-quality urban environment has become paramount.

Chris Hayton is a principal at ROTHELOWMAN with 20 years of experience working on major projects in Australia and Europe.
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Chris Hayton

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