The design details: How Rothelowman designed Glen Waverley's Sky Garden
Sky Garden is the recently completed residential complex located above The Glen shopping centre in Melbourne's Glen Waverley.
Golden Age wanted Rothelowman to create three distinctive buildings of three different characters, based of five natural elements.
Urban recently sat down with Rudy Darmawan, senior associate at Rothelowman, to discuss the project.
JR: What was the design brief for Sky Garden?
RD: The proposed development will be a key landmark for The Glen shopping centre and the greater Glen Waverley precinct.
A designated principal activity centre, Glen Waverley has the infrastructure and amenities necessary to support significant development in line with the planning objectives of the City of Monash.
The proposed development is envisioned as a home for owner-occupiers attracted to the unique opportunities and lifestyle to be found in a vibrant, growing Glen Waverley.
JR: Was there a previous project in particular you took design inspiration from?
RD: The highly contextual response takes design cues from its surrounds.
The urban forms respond to their immediate surrounds, adjacent buildings and contextual boundaries through controlled urban gestures, setbacks and interfaces.
The architecture is clean, contemporary, reflective and vibrant. Each tower draws inspiration from one of three natural elements: Gold, water and fire. The organic composition generates a calm, restrained outcome that contrasts with the varied,active landscapes and streetscapes of the surrounding precinct.
JR: What was the biggest challenge when conceiving the design of the building?
RD: The complex interfacing with the existing active shopping centre, and the compressed programme.
JR: What part of the project were you most looking forward to seeing when the development was completed?
RD: We believe the future evolution of our cities will see developers further embrace the untapped potential of projects like Sky Garden that integrate retail and entertainment precincts.
It means people can shop and be entertained right below their apartment. To live above projects, like The New Glen Shopping Centre, is an opportunity that very few people will come across in the short term.
From a design perspective, these are interesting developments. There is a lot of complexity in the design as the servicing, access and exits of various uses need to be separated. The success of this kind of project is contingent on the quality of the design and the convenience and value it offers. Consumers will make their choice based on these attributes.
The collection of buildings is visually elevated above The New Glen Shopping Centre and is architecturally designed to be collegial, yet each possessing its distinct character; similarly detailed and distinguished by fluid forms, modulation and colours.
Each building has been expressed as a sculptural form that has evolved and been contextualised to hold a symbiotic relationship with the movement of the podium forms, context and greater retail precinct. This consideration extends to each of the ground floor entry lobbies, the design of which relates to the curvature and materiality of each corresponding tower.
The sculptural shapes of the buildings are designed to be appreciated when seen up close as well as from a distance. Their colours have been inspired by the changing hues of the sky.
The colours respond to the skyline, the sun rising in the Dandenongs to the east to the sun setting to the city in the west. The eastern-most tower is a burnished bronze, the western-most tower is a sunset blush and the central tower is an indigo blue, picking up on the sky during the day.
