<a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developers/sunland-group">Sunland Group</a> has officially lodged plans for its first Gold Coast apartment project since the departure of the Abedian family from the company three years ago, unveiling a new high-rise proposal for a prominent Broadbeach corner site on Old Burleigh Road.

The application was submitted by an entity directed by Tom Jamieson, stepson of longtime Sunland leader Soheil Abedian, and Riaz Rezvanipour, brother-in-law of Sahba Abedian, Soheil’s son.

Sunland acquired the 1,283 sqm site on the corner of Old Burleigh Road and Armrick Avenue for $9.5 million late last year and is now seeking approval for a <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/99-101-old-burleigh-road-broadbeach-qld-4218">42-storey tower with 81 apartments</a>.

<img alt="First look: Sunland Group returns to Broadbeach with new Old Burleigh Road tower plans" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="fea2946d-90ee-4cfc-babe-2a8ad5db2cb6" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/pers.png?VersionId=BV0fihJw31nDIQ8ozY_h3GbS8mxDyhnm" />

Designed by <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/architects/contreras-earl-architecture">Contreras Earl Architecture</a>, the proposed tower at 99-101 Old Burleigh Road would deliver a predominantly larger-format apartment mix aimed at the owner-occupier market. Plans include 17 two-bedroom apartments, 55 three-bedroom apartments, and nine four-bedroom residences across 35 residential levels.

The development also incorporates three basement levels, four podium parking levels, two levels of communal recreation facilities, and rooftop plant and equipment. A total of 189 car spaces are proposed, significantly exceeding the 90 spaces required under the planning scheme.

The architecture adopts a sculpted, curvilinear form, with deep wraparound balconies and integrated landscaping intended to soften the tower’s vertical expression. The planning report states the building’s “slender footprint/form provides a complimentary yet varied built form within the local streetscape” and contributes to “a varied, yet ordered skyline.”

Contreras Earl noted in its Architectural Statement that from the early stages, the project addressed a fundamental challenge: how to accommodate the required residential yield while avoiding the conventional model of a tower sitting on a rigid, fully resolved parking podium.

“The most direct response would have been to consolidate parking into a singular, flat podium and extrude a repetitive tower above,” the statement said. “While efficient, this approach would result in a consolidated built form with limited engagement with the surrounding landscape and public realm.”

Instead, the conventional podium model was “deliberately rejected”. The architects described the base of the building as “a landscaped architectural condition where structure, planting and circulation are integrated”.

“Rather than presenting a continuous built mass, the base of the building is articulated through a series of concrete planter elements that organise the podium into a fragmented system,” the statement said. “This approach reduces the perceived bulk of the lower levels while establishing a more permeable interface with the streetscape and adjacent open space.”

<img alt="Sunland" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="923fad8d-c960-4527-8fbe-975cf1ddf88d" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/Screenshot%202026-05-25%20at%2010.32.03%E2%80%AFAM.png?VersionId=pngwb0hYOIUpq9vDw6F2EsOiVuHF3DiX" />

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The site sits within the High Density Residential Zone and inside the City of Gold Coast’s unrestricted “HX” building height area, where the planning framework anticipates intensified residential development tied to the expanding light rail corridor. The planning report notes the area is undergoing “transition toward more intense development forms” given its proximity to Broadbeach, Surfers Paradise, and high-frequency public transport infrastructure.

Positioned directly opposite Broadbeach Park and within walking distance of Florida Gardens light rail station, the development would sit among a rapidly evolving stretch of Old Burleigh Road that has become one of the Gold Coast’s most active apartment development corridors.

The application joins a growing pipeline of luxury residential projects reshaping Broadbeach, including nearby developments by 5Point Projects, Polycell, and Graya.

The planning report argues the project contributes toward the Gold Coast’s long-term housing targets under the South East Queensland Regional Plan, which forecasts the need for more than 100,000 additional high-rise dwellings across the city by 2046.

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The Abedian family departed Sunland Group in late 2023, ending a four-decade association with the company, and subsequently established the private development firm Abedian &amp; Co. The group is currently delivering <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/greenmount-residences-cnr-hill-street-and-marine-parade-coolangatta-qld-4225">Greenmount Residences</a> at Rainbow Bay and recently launched <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/18-mary-avenue-14-18-mary-avenue-broadbeach-qld-4218">18 Mary Avenue</a> in Broadbeach.
</section>

Joel Robinson

First look: Sunland Group returns to Broadbeach new apartment market with new Old Burleigh Road tower plans

The Minns Labor Government has established the new Bays West Delivery Authority to lead the development&nbsp;of the Bays West Precinct and Blackwattle Bay Precinct.&nbsp;

The Authority is charged with creating Sydney’s newest precinct, a thriving, connected, sustainable hub with White Bay Power Station as its cultural heart. Its vision is to build on the area’s natural, cultural and industrial history to shape a vibrant new neighbourhood.

The precinct will deliver up to 8,500 well-located homes, including a minimum of 10 per cent affordable and essential worker homes. Combine new housing with public open space, opening public access to the waterfront for the first time in more than 100 years, while retaining important deep-water facilities to support Sydney’s working harbour.

Located just minutes from the Sydney CBD and connected to a world-class metro, ferry, walking and cycling links, the Bays West precinct will rebalance housing growth towards well-serviced inner-city locations and help tackle the state’s housing crisis.

The Bays West Delivery Authority,&nbsp;an agency of the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure, will report to the NSW Minister for Lands and Property who already has oversight of major precinct renewal projects including at Blackwattle Bay and Barangaroo.

As part of the broader Bays West transformation, the Minns Government recently announced that a proposal from Lendlease to redevelop part of the Bays West Precinct has progressed to Stage 2 of the NSW Government’s unsolicited proposals process.

<img alt="Sydney" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="2ed71eb9-d8e8-4fa7-b9d1-de4531dcf2f3" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/Screenshot%202026-05-25%20at%209.42.31%E2%80%AFAM.png?VersionId=IDryFIbped9SNDg72LEN_EecvhUsOPvp" />

The Minns Labor Government has also confirmed the Bays West precinct will have a new suburb name. This will be the first major suburb built in close proximity to Sydney’s CBD in decades and will encompass the area currently being referred to as Bays West, including Glebe Island and the White Bay Power Station. Served by a new Metro station just five minutes from the CBD, it will become one of the most populous suburbs in the Inner West and one of Sydney’s premier cultural destinations.

An early works program is taking shape, which&nbsp;includes the first stages of an international design competition.&nbsp;

The aim of the Bays West&nbsp;International&nbsp;Design Competition is to&nbsp;ensure design excellence is embedded in the project from the start. The competition will deliver an&nbsp;urban framework that defines the character, ambition and long-term identity of&nbsp;this&nbsp;former industrial precinct as it transitions to a vibrant, inclusive and sustainable residential&nbsp;neighbourhood.

The competition will be led by the Bays West Delivery Authority in partnership with Government Architect NSW.&nbsp;

It will launch with an invitation for a global Expressions of Interest, before moving to an invitation-only stage that will be assessed by a panel that&nbsp;will provide advice to Cabinet who will select a winner.

Premier of NSW, Chris Minns said the establishment of the new Authority is the first step in transforming the Bays West precinct into a vibrant, livable suburb minutes from the Sydney CBD and two stops from Hunter St Station on the Metro West line.

“The Authority will deliver well-located homes close to the heart of the city and integrate the new precinct with Blackwattle Bay and the new Sydney Fish Market.

“This is a generational opportunity to build a new suburb on the city’s edge and open the harbour foreshore to the public for the first time in a century.”&nbsp;

Minister for Lands and Property Steve Kamper said the new Bays West Delivery Authority established by the Minns Government will turbocharge the development of Sydney’s newest suburb.

“The Authority is working at a record pace to deliver an international design competition, planning pathways and a financial model so that this development benefits Sydney with well-designed homes in a central location, close to public transport, jobs, entertainment and essential services.

“If we want Sydney to stay liveable and affordable, we need to be bold about using underutilised government-owned land to deliver homes for the future while making sure essential working harbour functions can be accommodated.”

Bays West Delivery Authority established to "turbocharge" Sydney’s newest suburb

Around 400 additional homes could be built at Southwark Grounds on Port Road, lifting total site capacity from 1300 to around 1700 dwellings.

A recently approved code amendment would allow apartment towers of up to 14 storeys in some areas of Renewal SA’s redevelopment of the former West End Brewery.

Renewal SA Acting Chief Executive Shane Wingard said he welcomed the code amendment, with the increase in heights and homes making a positive impact on the supply of high-quality, well-connected housing close to the city.

“By going higher across some parts of Southwark Grounds, we are adding a substantial number of very well-located homes with little impact on project delivery time or planned open space,” Mr Wingard said.

Since the project officially launched in 2025, Mr Wingard said more than 12,000 enquiries had been received about living at Southwark Grounds.

“The very strong early interest we’ve seen since homes were first released in the precinct reinforces our plans to create more housing opportunities,” he said.

The Southwark Grounds code amendment was launched in December last year, with community engagement undertaken over five weeks from January.

It proposed increasing maximum building heights from eight to 14 storeys on the eastern section of Southwark Grounds, and to 12 storeys across the remainder of the site, with minimum building heights ranging from two to four storeys.

The code amendment was implemented through an Early Commencement policy in late January, allowing developers to quickly explore the viability of increased height and housing yield while other planning processes continue.

One of the first developers delivering apartment sites have already finalised redesigns to increase the number of apartments following the code amendment.

Samaras’ development adjacent to the future Colonel Light Park is now planning to deliver 125 apartments across 11 storeys, significantly greater than original plans of around 50 apartments across four storeys.

The developer is also exploring the potential for additional affordable housing outcomes.

Most of the apartments at Southwark Grounds will be delivered within a master-planned precinct on a large parcel of land on the eastern portion of the site, covering around two-thirds of its 8.4 hectares.

Wingard said detailed precinct planning over the coming months may identify further opportunities to increase yield further that could see total apartment numbers at Southwark Grounds, exceed this number.

Affordable homes at Southwark Grounds will also see a net increase, with Renewal SA maintaining its commitment to a minimum of 20 per cent affordable housing across the development.

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Civil works have begun across the site, with construction under way on the first new roads surrounding a townhouse precinct in the south‑west corner of Southwark Grounds. This includes Renewal SA’s 17 Founder’s Row homes, which are on track for completion by Christmas.

“We expect to have people living at Southwark Grounds by the end of the year, so delivering roads and public spaces for those residents is among our highest priorities.”

Construction of 40 townhouses off Anderson Street, known as West Village and being delivered by Contour, is forecast to begin in mid‑2026. Kolabb’s Anderson Lane development will follow shortly after, delivering a further 26 townhouses.

Southwark Grounds is a state government‑led urban renewal project now set to deliver around 1,700 homes over the next decade.

Homes will be supported by a supermarket, a range of retail and hospitality offerings anchored by a revitalised Walkerville Brew Tower, a childcare centre, car parking and well‑connected public spaces.

400 new homes planned for Adelaide's former West End Brewery site

Brisbane developer&nbsp;<a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developers/cavcorp">Cavcorp</a> has lodged plans for a new mixed-use residential development at <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/55-wyandra-street-teneriffe-qld-4005">55 Wyandra Street</a>, Teneriffe, anchored by an 85-metre public laneway designed to reconnect the suburb’s riverfront with the Gasworks precinct.

The buildings, known as Teneriffe House and Teneriffe Lane, would replace the existing Queensland Cotton head office site with a 15-storey residential tower transitioning to eight storeys toward Helen Street. The project has been designed by Plazibat Architects and lodged as a code assessable development application for 93 apartments across a 3,401 sqm mixed-use site within the Newstead and Teneriffe Waterfront neighbourhood plan.

Central to the scheme is the transformation of an existing service easement into a publicly accessible cross-block connection linking Wyandra and Helen Streets. Cavcorp says the new laneway will act as both a pedestrian shortcut and a landscaped civic space between the Teneriffe Riverwalk, ferry terminal, and Gasworks precinct.

<img alt="First Look: Cavcorp unveils Teneriffe House and Teneriffe Lane plans for landmark wellness tower in Teneriffe" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="26e7f058-b065-4de8-b13d-a2b8cb64dfcc" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/bldg.png?VersionId=sELS0ZKYi361oYipUa1BIKfe_.DLZoFV" />

“The revised proposal delivers a legacy public-realm cross-block link, permanently secured for community use, transforming an existing private easement into a safe, high-quality pedestrian connection between the Teneriffe heritage riverwalk and the Gasworks–Long Island precinct,” the planning report states.

The laneway will sit beneath a large subtropical loggia integrated into the podium levels of the development. The design incorporates deep landscaping, water gardens, lobby spaces, business lounges, and ground-floor apartments to create what Cavcorp describes as a climate-responsive “urban verandah.”

The tower itself has been designed as a slender form with recessed floorplates and curved translucent corners inspired by contemporary Japanese architecture. The building height aligns with the Commercial Road precinct controls, which permit towers up to 15 storeys within proximity to Longland Street.

<img alt="First Look: Cavcorp unveils Teneriffe House and Teneriffe Lane plans for landmark wellness tower in Teneriffe" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="a8a17d40-43b6-4718-b3fd-67676fcbb485" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/pers%202_1.png?VersionId=i3VwDtp5AmL_8InW7w4qRbDFEpb744Jt" />

The project will comprise a mix of larger-format apartments aimed at owner-occupiers, downsizers, and families. The proposed apartment mix includes 11 loggia apartments across the lower levels, 50 four-bedroom Sky-Terrace apartments from levels three to seven, and 32 Sky-Pool Homes occupying the upper tower levels. The Sky-Pool Homes will feature private thermal plunge pools integrated into oversized balconies.

According to the application, the apartments are intended to reinterpret the scale and character of Teneriffe’s woolstore conversions and Queensland homes within a vertical residential format.

“The sky-pool homes build on Cavcorp’s previous projects and introduce a distinct apartment typology to Teneriffe, informed by both local and international precedent and responding to an identified market demand for enhanced safety, space and amenity,” the planning submission notes.

A major focus of the proposal is its five-level wellness and lifestyle offering, extending from the basement through to the rooftop.

Amenities proposed include a rooftop Swim &amp; Racquet Club with a 25-metre Olympic lap pool and tennis court, coworking spaces and libraries, golf simulators, wine storage, concierge facilities, business lounges, pet wash areas, and rooftop longevity-focused wellness spaces with spas, outdoor fitness zones, and landscaped terraces.

<img alt="First Look: Cavcorp unveils Teneriffe House and Teneriffe Lane plans for landmark wellness tower in Teneriffe" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="944b352c-49b9-4247-a4c6-5967b4b69fda" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/amenity.png?VersionId=Ed_qKjAtMwFT.5gfl3jiA9QwdWxSMsaX" />

All parking will be concealed within basement levels accessed from Wyandra and Helen Streets. Cavcorp says the deep-basement engineering approach allows the entire ground plane to prioritise landscaping, pedestrian movement, and active frontage rather than vehicle infrastructure.

The development continues Cavcorp’s concentration in Newstead and Teneriffe, where the Brisbane developer has delivered a number of apartment projects including Lucent, Le Bain, and Luminare, as well as the Long Island Wellness Precinct nearby. Several of those projects have received national design and architecture awards, including recognition under Brisbane’s “Buildings that Breathe” program.

Cavcorp unveils wellness-focused Teneriffe House and Teneriffe Lane apartment buildings

Focus Group Investments has lodged plans for a new apartment development at <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/64-70-hanover-street-fitzroy-vic-3065">64–70 Hanover Street</a> in Fitzroy, seeking to utilise the Victorian Government’s recently introduced Great Design Fast Track pathway to accelerate approvals for the project.

The proposal is among the latest developments to emerge through the state-led initiative, which was established to fast-track well-designed residential projects in activity centres and transport-connected inner-city locations. The pathway allows qualifying developments that meet elevated design and housing benchmarks to bypass traditional council planning timeframes and instead be assessed directly by the Department of Transport and Planning.

Designed by SJB, the development will comprise a mix of apartments above activated lower levels, with a strong focus on architectural articulation, landscaping, and communal amenity. The design response seeks to balance the industrial character of Richmond’s former warehouse precincts with a more contemporary residential form.

<img alt="First look: Focus Group Investments taps Victoria’s Great Design Fast Track for Richmond apartments" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="abea51cc-d85b-479e-9aef-a589f3b37ca7" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/ground.png?VersionId=e1Kf8EyPWwyiVumtqQ4rM5S4GpOR3CCz" />

Proposed are 63 new dwellings, a wide ranging mix of studio, one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments, and townhouses and duplexes. They will be spread across a part-three, part-eight storey building.

The Planning and Urban Context Report by Tract says the development is of an "exemplary architectural standard" and has been carefully crafted by SJB Architects.

"Dwellings&nbsp;will benefit from excellent access to natural light, cross-ventilation opportunities and extensive communal space," the report noted.

The architectural material highlights the project’s integration of landscaped elements and communal spaces throughout the building. The proposal also incorporates sustainability initiatives aligned with the Victorian Government’s push for higher-performing apartment developments under the fast-track program.

The Great Design Fast Track was unveiled by the Victorian Government in 2024 as part of a broader housing supply strategy aimed at accelerating the delivery of new homes. Projects assessed through the pathway must demonstrate high-quality architecture, sustainability outcomes, and housing diversity while being located close to public transport and existing infrastructure.

<img alt="First look: Focus Group Investments taps Victoria’s Great Design Fast Track for Richmond apartments" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="afdbe834-8dc4-4a77-a943-ba07bc927348" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/site_11.png?VersionId=0J657j.TaChAZfp93wqJYBTqSsnREJx2" />

Focus Group, founder and led by Paul De Lutiis, is increasingly active across Melbourne’s inner suburbs, targeting well-connected urban renewal locations suited to medium and higher-density residential development. The Fitzroy proposal continues that strategy, leveraging the area’s strong transport links, established retail amenity, and proximity to the CBD.

Fitzroy has been one of the most popular spots for developers and buyers in recent years. The likes of PACE Development Group, SMA Projects, Crema Group and Chapter Group, currently selling projects in the suburb.

First look: Focus Group Investments taps Victoria’s Great Design Fast Track for Fitzroy apartments

Interview

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Urban.com.au recently had a chat with <a href="http://harwyn.com.au/">Harwyn</a> Managing Director Jason Fremder about their prefabricated studio pods and the company's ambitions and aspirations for the future.

Laurence Dragomir: What were some of the driving factors in the development of the Harwyn pods? What made you decide there was a niche or gap in the market?

Jason Fremder: I came to the conclusion that there was a need for a compact professional space combined with function and style. Now where that came from, and I'm jumping slightly ahead, I'd worked from home, I had a home office for many years ­ in fact probably the majority of my professional life. I've spent more time at my home office than my office desk and then I had a daughter and when she was born I still had my home office but it just wasn't quite the same.

One day I was in the back seat of my car, working in the driveway and it sort of occurred to me that this is what I wanted; I want to be at home but I want to be just that little bit separated from the noise, maybe not so much in those words but the experience and so I had this idea and it was very quick because I was performing due diligence on another business. I was already looking for something to do with the business and now I'm not the most stylish person on the planet, I don't want to paint that impression but I'm a modern guy with a modern car and apple equipment. So all of these things are what I wanted the office to be. Any of the things that I looked at on the market that were easy to access seemed like they were left overs from the 70's.

They just didn't seem to have that professional look ­ if I wanted to do something in my house I'd want it to be up to date and I didn't feel like there was anything out there. On top of that any of the things I thought that were not bad, I thought it was a bit hard because they were asking me to get planning permits and start becoming a builder to get involved.

Now you know when I go to buy a car I don't have to understand the mechanics of the car if I don't want to, I don't need to understand the legal system, I can go to a dealer, they can give me the price, I write the cheque and we're done! I've got my car! Now with this I felt this should be a similar experience; why can't you just get one of these units and whatever problems there might be, let's pay someone to solve them. How involved do I want to be? Let's say I'm not an involved person and I was trying to think these are the barriers to me pulling the trigger on any of the companies. It just all looked too hard. I thought it can't be that hard! So I felt like there's got to be people out there like me.

It's the times as well ­ 5 or 10 years ago this might not have worked but today working from home and with technology giving you the ability to move desks so easily, to hot desk, I thought there was a real opportunity in the market place and I was willing after performing some due diligence, we did a bit of research and look a business like this there's an element of risk but I had a very strong sense that there were plenty of like­ minded people out there in undertaking market research. So what it came down to in the end was designing the right product that met the needs of other potential professionals or hobbyists out there. The combination of we all need space and if we can make the process easy enough and accessible enough to people you'll probably find there's people out there who will respond to what we're doing.

<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/professional_reduced.jpg" rel="gallery-all" title="Professional pod © Harwyns"><img alt="" class="image-article-full-width-580px" height="387" src="/sites/urban.melbourne/files/styles/article_full_width_580px/public/pictures/article-images/professional_reduced.jpg?itok=corNN8f1" title="Professional pod © Harwyns" width="580"></a>

<figcaption>Professional pod © Harwyns</figcaption></figure>LD: Speaking of accessibility and convenience what is the turn around time for one of the pods?

JF: The easiest way to answer that is... a client came to us, and this is the shortest one we've had, they came to us before Christmas ­ it was the 11th of November and she wanted it in before Christmas. The first she had heard of us was on the 10th of November, so she comes into the showroom, she loves the product, picks the colours and says "I need it by the 23rd of December, what can you do?"

I obviously checked that the colours she picked were available in the time that we needed and we said sure. So from the 11th of November to the 23rd of December she had a pod fully installed and ready to go, she was sitting working in the pod. So 6 weeks is generally the norm but we can do it on a short turn around time­ we can technically do it in 10 days if it was absolutely essential, all the guys would have to be available and we'd have to make sure that our backlog wasn't too large. I think going forward into the future, 5 maybe 7 years from now I'd like to be able to buy one like you would buy a car. If they have one on the lot, you buy it and you take it home.

LD: So why do you think someone would choose a Harwyn pod?

JF: I think first of all, before any of that discussion even begins i.e. "why choose a Harwyn?" it's important to understand that like everything, a Harwyn is not for everyone. Who it's not for is people after a cheap fix. Because really you could go to Bunnings and I guess for $300 you could get a shed, put some ribbons on it and drop a desk in. A Harwyn would appeal to people such as yourself, otherwise you wouldn't be talking to me, someone that appreciates quality, the value of great design, a customer service focused company. This is a product that let's say you dropped it in the yard and it was sitting there for 10 years untouched. After 10 years you brushed it off, brushed off the webs it would still be in mint condition. This is effectively a commercial building, the build quality of it, it's the products we have chosen and specified and it's fully portable.

It's for people who want to work from home and I think that's a range of people. At the moment we're actually designing one for someone who wants a studio in her mother's backyard. It's 35sqm so two Harwyn maxi's joined together with an ensuite. So where we are and where we're going, I think we're going to be in that range of micro living. But also office space, playrooms/hobby rooms for children who I think are going to extract a lot of value out of them as they grow and in turn their needs grow.

So from a play room to a place they can have fun and not be on top of the parents, then as they grow older and they don't want the parents in their space so they now have their own private room and as they move through to VCE and their final year at school it becomes then a place where they can do their study and work without the whole house having to be silenced. The house can go on with what they do while the kids get to study.

So I think there's a lot of potential uses of which we know which exist but then there's others that we're still learning about, like the one you would have seen on the video on the website. When we started the business we never anticipated that someone with a pilates studio would require extra office space on top of a balcony! It's phenomenal, it's fantastic! And she is just ecstatic. I speak with her from time to time and she just loves it.

So some of the benefits from that sort of work/life balance include commute times, it's environmentally friendly because you're only heating or cooling small space when it needs to be heated or cooled, it's obstruction free, there are cost savings, flexibility, increased productivity, improved health. I'm sort of brushing over them, they're the benefits in point form and I could go on and on and elaborate but those are some of the benefits derived from this sort of setup.

<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/img_6531.jpeg" rel="gallery-all" title="A pod being craned into place © Harwyns"><img alt="" class="image-article-full-width-580px" height="435" src="/sites/urban.melbourne/files/styles/article_full_width_580px/public/pictures/article-images/img_6531.jpeg?itok=7GT_nNnq" title="A pod being craned into place © Harwyns" width="580"></a>

<figcaption>A pod being craned into place © Harwyn</figcaption></figure>LD: The next question relates to materials. The pods are manufactured in Melbourne but with European materials – any scope in future to source local and/or recycled materials – use of timbers, fiber cement, colorbond etc? ie really localising it to an Australian context?

JF: That's a great question and I'd like to address what you're asking about in terms of the local content. The Harwyn pod is made of mostly 100% Australian product. The components that we're talking about, for example the steel base and the steel portal frames is all Australian steel, 100% welded and fabricated here in Melbourne. Then the next element is our structure ­ PIR (polyisocyanurate) panels are used predominantly in commercial and industrial cooling rooms and the advantage of the panels is the R rating is significantly higher than a EPS foam ­ at 50mm you're effectively getting the equivalent of 120mm of foam.

But more importantly it doesn't draw in any moisture so you don't have a build up of mould. It's also used in medical so it's a sterile medical product and also a good sound insulator and it's made right here in Australia, it's manufactured in Sydney from all local materials. The doors, windows and glass are all local.

If we turn our attention to the cabinets, they're all local, custom made to the pods so as you can see there's already a whole lot of local content within it. Now there's obviously a couple of elements like, for example, the carpet which isn't local for various reasons. A lot of considerations were made when choosing the materials so if we could be 100% local we would. Quality is our number one consideration and priority ­ not just how it looks today but how it's going to look in 15,20 years.

Because it can look great out of the showroom, people talk about sustainability but for me sustainability starts and ends with are we going to put it in landfill in a year or two or is this going to be something that we can use and re­use because these pods are so easily portable when someone finishes there use with it unlike a house which may get bulldozed this does not get bulldozed with it.

The reason we've gone with the ACM (Aluminum Composite Material) panels for the European component, there's a local product which we looked at... well actually it's an Australian company that imports it but we went with ACM for two reasons: an incredible style to the look of the product, we can manufacture we can fabricate them. The way the pods look today we're going to be able to redesign them shortly, which we will do, they'll come with a brand new look, completely fabricated in the new look. The ACM also gives an incredible protection. As well as solar radiation protection it comes with a 10 years manufacturer's guarantee, it doesn't deteriorate. You see the photos and the look of it, this is something important to us.

With timbers, for example, there's a huge responsibility passed back onto the client, if you do not maintain it then it's going to deteriorate and the economic cost of redoing a product like this, today whatever the labour costs are they're only going to increase. We would all love to mow the lawn and clean the car and in good faith we say that but it rarely happens. That's one of the considerations with this ­ what to do to make sure that we aren't giving the client a problem, that we're giving them a complete solution. We're not increasing workloads, we're not increasing responsibilities, we've done all the hard work in deciding the materials, the finishes, the details, all you need to do is enjoy.

That's why we've gone with the ACM but it's not to say that moving forwards we aren't open to new materials and finishes. I don't see anyway that some point over the next few years we're not going to be having 100% Australian sourced product. Not to say we would stop using ACM, because we're huge fans of it. With the way technology is progressing there's things going on that a rep could come knocking on the door tomorrow with a product we haven't heard of or seen. Chances are it'll be local with the way manufacturing is going and modernisation, 3D printing, some technology's going to come and it's just around the corner, no doubt.

In fairness to us I think we have done well with the way manufacturing and local products in Australia are, we've really looked to open up production. I've told this story before but I was hugely inspired by Jayco caravans. I don't use caravans but I went out to have a look at their factory after a friend suggested to go look at manufacturing in Australia. So I went and had a look and they produce 100% Australian made caravans. It's incredible to see the possibilities of what we can do. They pump out 10,000 caravans a year from a local factory...an unbelievable operation. I'm personally really proud that we have local guys and we're giving them work.

LD: Just to finish off. With an eye towards the future where do you see the greatest opportunity for its application? Where are you hoping to take it moving forward? How easy is it to combine pods and do you see that becoming more common?

JF: It's always difficult to predict what's going to happen, we're we plan on going forwards and where we're actually heading, we don't know. But as an example with the client that put two pods together ­ to clarify we designed it so as to put two of our super maxis together. We've engineered it so that we can add any amount together be it 3, 4, 6 etc. no problem. In the future we'll also have double story pods, we'll be able to stack them one on top of the other. We're actually working on that as we speak.

The potential then for business hubs ­ a cluster of 10 pods connected by little decks where various professions are working ­ we've started exploring that with a range of clients and no doubt we'll have one up and running in the very near future. It's these kind of directions that we might head in. We receive enquiries from various types of industries; from corporates, education etc. There's no shortage of industries contacting us. Everyone needs space. As the need for space grows and as we know real estate has become increasingly valuable, how to utilise space cleverly? That's what we're in the business of. I think there are a lot of possibilities going forward.

LD: Thanks for your time Jason and I look forward to chatting again in the not-too-distant future.

<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/meeting_higher.jpg" rel="gallery-all" title="Meeting pod © Harwyns"><img alt="" class="image-article-full-width-580px" height="387" src="/sites/urban.melbourne/files/styles/article_full_width_580px/public/pictures/article-images/meeting_higher.jpg?itok=QZ5_pTkp" title="Meeting pod © Harwyns" width="580"></a>

<figcaption>Meeting pod © Harwyns</figcaption></figure>
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Laurence Dragomir

Harwyn's designer pods for creation and recreation

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Last month it was <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/nsw-to-build-first-public-highrise-high-school-in-parramatta-20150212-13ctqm">reported</a> that <a href="/new-apartments/parramatta-nsw">Parramatta</a> would be developing NSW's first high-rise school set to open in 2019. Apartments.com.au discussed some of the opportunities and challenges associated with a vertical campus and how it might be implemented in Melbourne with <a href="/architects/hayball">Hayball</a> Director Richard Leonard.

Laurence Dragomir: Has the practice had much involvement in investigating the high-rise school model?

Richard Leonard: Yes, we have been involved in a couple of similar projects recently. One assisting the Department of Education in re-thinking a denser model of school in one of the outer suburbs in one of the more built up areas - it was a small study of what a dense model of secondary school might be.

The major one was a few years ago where we worked with VicUrban to re-think what a primary school model might be in the context of an area like the <a href="/new-apartments/docklands-vic-3008">Docklands</a>. That was quite a significant study undertaken working with the VicUrban team and especially with the education expert Dr. Julia Atkin to really promote what might be a specific response to a dense urban condition such as the Docklands. But also in the sense of what might be teasing out a contemporary response to education and exploring a 21st Century education model.

LD: Was that an exercise in developing some more general ideas rather than a site specific response i.e. was this done prior to a site being chosen at Digital Harbour?

RL: It was more about developing ideas. Some sites were “road-tested” but it was fairly fluid; it was more about exploring what might be more of a successful education model that would fit in the context of Docklands.

<figure><a class="colorbox colorbox-insert-image" href="https://urban.melbourne/sites/urban.melbourne/files/pictures/article-images/vertical_school_2.png" rel="gallery-all" title="Vertical School conceptual study. © Hayball"><img alt="" class="image-article-full-width-580px" height="439" src="/sites/urban.melbourne/files/styles/article_full_width_580px/public/pictures/article-images/vertical_school_2.png?itok=7ytxJmik" title="Vertical School conceptual study. © Hayball" width="580"></a>

<figcaption>Vertical School conceptual study. © Hayball</figcaption></figure>In the end like a lot of these studies, it's really a matter of waiting for the planets to align. It really requires government departments and the authorities to co-operate to make it happen. It was a very interesting study in terms of re-thinking, firstly the model of schools and secondly how that transfers into a really dense and rich environment such as Docklands… but you could intersperse that really with any inner city condition. You could even think in terms of the denser areas in the outskirts of Melbourne or even Sydney. In Melbourne places like <a href="/new-apartments/dandenong-vic-3175">Dandenong</a>, <a href="/developments/cranbourne-vic-3977">Cranbourne</a> or <a href="/new-apartments/ringwood-vic-3134">Ringwood</a> - those sort of built up areas or in Sydney as we're seeing with the Parramatta school. Any of those environments are really conducive to the concept of a denser school model that responds to its specific urban context.

LD: What are some of the programmatic issues around safety and amenity that should be considered and some of the challenges they might raise?

RL: I think safety is probably the easy one because you deal with that in the knowledge that we have some pretty powerful regulatory controls that predict what you have to do in terms of life safety. Amenity is the big one particularly in terms of breakout spaces and play spaces and that's a big challenge in dense urban contexts.

But there’s an even bigger issue and one that I believe people aren't addressing – and it's lost in the immediacy of people “solution jumping” to propose the design solutions. The bigger issue is in really understanding what the education model is… because what we know is that you can't try to shoehorn a traditional school into that sort of environment - that is to say that we just can’t take a traditional school model and stack it 5-storeys high - that's simply not the model that's going to work.

It's really about defining what is the contemporary model of education that will work in that rich urban environment and combine to contribute to it. That is, what can the city offer the school and the school offer the city? And to better define what we mean by the contemporary school mode, I suppose this is best summarised by a place containing variety of spaces that are adaptable, creative, collaborative, responsive and working through the reciprocal nature of education which supports learners that are self-directed and teachers that are learning mentors… and that integrates with the community. So it's a very different model to transfer those traits into the city or a dense urban context and not just try to replicate a traditional, outer urban school model. That's the real cruncher.

And I think there's obviously a great possibility in terms of the land and financial efficiency with the dense school model. But then how do you make it contribute to a sense of community? How do you enable the workers or the residents of that area to have their kids educated close to their workplace? And how you make it function is coming back to that fundamental definition of contemporary education and the response of the educators to successfully promote, implement and sustain the model.

This is critical. Especially in the dense urban school, it's about the re-imagining of the education model and how it responds to the context and the community. Defining the model and the pedagogical response - that is, how do learners learn and how do teachers teach? And with such a fundamental shift, having the government behind it and supporting the shift in thinking is crucial. The Parramatta model is a good example: it's had very competent architects who are skilled in education and who have developed a pretty interesting model, but the concern I have is that it needs to be matched by the government in its education philosophies and pedagogies.

However as I understand it, what the authorities have publicised in Parramatta is 'classrooms of the future'! But as a Sydney colleague astutely points out, so often in that State they haven't yet progressed to classrooms of the present. The very fact that they're also talking about “classrooms” is a bit of a giveaway because that's a very traditional way of learning and of thinking of schools. So I have some concerns about how the project there might be developed successfully and hopefully the government does respond to the more progressive thinking and work with it because it's fundamental for success in the Parramatta context.

LD: With a vertical model how do you see that playing out - there was a brief mention of it earlier - in terms of open space, sports facilities etc? I remember working a number of years ago on the MacRobertson Girls' High School masterplan and one of the areas we looked at was how the school utilised its location and adjacency to Albert Park and the facilities on offer there - almost becoming an extension of the school grounds or campus. Do you see that as something that as being one possible solution to addressing the need and desire for open space and other facilities?

<figure><a class="colorbox colorbox-insert-image" href="https://urban.melbourne/sites/urban.melbourne/files/pictures/article-images/macrob_masterplan_2010.jpg" rel="gallery-all" title="MacRobertson Girls' High Masterplan 2010. © Kerstin Thompson Architects"><img alt="" class="image-article-full-width-580px" height="359" src="/sites/urban.melbourne/files/styles/article_full_width_580px/public/pictures/article-images/macrob_masterplan_2010.jpg?itok=-GInBL1g" title="MacRobertson Girls' High Masterplan 2010. © Kerstin Thompson Architects" width="580"></a>

<figcaption>MacRobertson Girls' High Masterplan 2010. © Kerstin Thompson Architects</figcaption></figure>RL: I think that's absolutely right. I'm pretty familiar with MacRob as we also did some masterplanning work there some years ago ourselves. It's interesting because as you would realise, for them to function they virtually rely on that synergistic use of the locality; that is they walk their students down to MSAC (Melbourne Sports &amp; Aquatic Centre) to use many of the facilities there and that's vital for their functioning as a school. Also they utilize the adjacent public parkland for break-out and recreation. It is a really good example of how a school can successfully exist in an inner city location. But then I think you have to ask "what are the next steps?"

Now MacRob's is a very traditional model of school that promotes a very specific and important function in the Department of Education system here as one of their lighthouse high-performance schools. So I guess when we're talking about the next steps in an inner urban area then how do you considering the school as more of an integrated community resource. That works to some extent at MacRob where, for example, their Gymnasium is heavily used out of hours by the local community. In inner-urban schools it is important to consider the opportunities for those reciprocal relationships that schools can have with their locality.

For instance if you take the Docklands as an example there was consideration of how a school could use the collateral of the city such as galleries, museums, the municipal library, the river or any of the other pieces of infrastructure that exist; and conversely how the school could support community activities and services that would help develop that relationship and connection with the local community – so the school could act as a focus for what is currently a fairly desolate area. To explain that idea further, there was consideration for how the school might embrace some of the City of Melbourne functions to have connection to social services or communal facilities or meeting spaces etc. In that context we were considering does the school need a library or can it use the Docklands Library instead, so you could really think about that synergistic connection of school to its context.

We went further in fact to look and say well that's one model and there's plenty of models around the world that are good examples of that; one of the best ones, the Discovery School in Christchurch (pre-earthquake) was from memory in a 5-6-storey building located in the middle of the Christchurch CBD. The students were using the collateral of the city seamlessly – city mall, the parklands, the library etc and even having interconnections with businesses… really, an intense and rich use of the city resources.

So when it came to the Docklands school we were also considering the possibilities to have an impact in the whole of the Docklands area. One of the propositions for instance was a satellite model – does the school need to be in a single location or can it be a more dispersed model? You could think of the school having a central hub and supporting satellite facilities around the neighbourhood that could be much more of a finer grain response to the particular different localities of that context and that provide a much broader set of resources and opportunities. For example, the arts areas could co-locate with galleries or the sports area co-locate with the city’s sports facilities or learning hubs could be embedded within local communities. And that was pretty interesting because again it was trying to get away from the “fortress school” mentality and thinking that the first step is to encourage the “code-sharing” of facilities and learning spaces that might exist in a number of community locations. Some schools have done that pretty successfully in terms of having city-campuses, or outpost facilities in the country, overseas, in shopping centres and so forth, so there's many other ways to think of it.

<figure><a class="colorbox colorbox-insert-image" href="https://urban.melbourne/sites/urban.melbourne/files/pictures/article-images/vertical_school_11.png" rel="gallery-all" title="Vertical School conceptual study. © Hayball"><img alt="" class="image-article-full-width-580px" height="410" src="/sites/urban.melbourne/files/styles/article_full_width_580px/public/pictures/article-images/vertical_school_11.png?itok=TohMJoLC" title="Vertical School conceptual study. © Hayball" width="580"></a>

<figcaption>Vertical School conceptual study. © Hayball</figcaption></figure>LD: Now the obvious question I think is, and you sort of touched on it before but what might some of these designs look like? And how do you future proof the schools to cater for growth and dealing with advances in technology?

RL: That's the million dollar question isn't it and I don't think there's any simple answer. I think some interesting thinking has been provided by Steven Harris, the Principal of Northern Beaches Christian College in Sydney. He often challenges architects by questioning how do you even know that the school that you are developing now will even be a school in, say, 30 years’ time? So he correctly promotes the need to build-in flexibility of use, but more perversely is questioning us on the future of “bricks and mortar” schools. His current model of school that he regularly admits inspired him was walking around Madrid Airport where he concluded it was a pretty good model for a school in the sense that you have all the possibilities of flexible learning in a rich environment. So he has re-conceptualised his school along the lines of almost the supermarket principle of not talking about classrooms at all but talking about a rich variety of experiences and opportunities – and very much a flexible, creative, student-centric model.

I think whether it's an inner city school or a dense school or an outer suburban 12ha lot, we're still really dealing with exactly the same fundamental problem: where is education heading? I think there are the universal principles of student-centric learning, of more research-based work, of collaborative paradigms, of interconnections with community that is much more stronger than it was a decade or two ago. I think all of those things can only continue to emerge and grow and be impacted by our re-thinking of education and also by advances in technology.

We were recently wrestling with the notion of advances in technology in terms of education. For instance, speaking with some educators about the possibility of where some of this technology is heading and the fact that probably in just a few years’ time we will have students working with 3d glasses etc. That means they could do a lot of work at home or in fact anywhere, but still feel like they in the school or teaching environment - that you could have an immersive school experience virtually. Similar to Steven Harris’ provocations, that's going to radically shift the thinking of what is “school” and how is it delivered.

LD: Anything you would like to finish the discussion with Richard?

RL: If I could reinforce one thing, I'd say the missing link and possibly - and I hope not - but possibly key challenge with the Parramatta school, is that so often governments are good when making the big announcements and putting up the edifices as the “next big thing”. But the key part is to support that with the infrastructure – both the human and the policy framework – to make sure that it is sustainable. Human in terms of getting their teachers professionally developed to be able to work in these new contexts; and augmented by policy framework supporting what they are doing system-wide and not just as an isolated outpost exemplar school. Otherwise, we might just be developing a white elephant.

LD: Richard, it has been a pleasure and I thank you again for taking the time to have a chat.
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A discussion on vertical modes of learning with Hayball's Richard Leonard 

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Away from the high profile yet dawdling urban renewal area that is Joseph Street Precinct, a raft of other Footscray infill development sites are in the process of finding new purpose. With infrastructure such as the new West Footscray Railway Station in place and located only a handful of kilometres from Melbourne's CBD, Footscray is proving to be a popular choice for both developers and residents alike.

One of the 'early adopters' was developer Cedar Woods who pounced upon a sizeable development site fronting Barkly Street, Footscray during 2006. Now known as Banbury Village, the final stage of the development consists of a ROTHELOWMAN-designed apartment complex dubbed Botanica Apartments.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=3031]

After a mixture of housing types to date, Botancia Apartments represents Cedar Woods' foray into apartment living within Banbury Village. On the back of this I recently spoke with State Manager at Cedar Woods Properties, Nathan Blackburne, regarding Banbury Village and the ongoing role that the development firm plays in urban regeneration.

Laurence Dragomir: Describe the highlights that have made Banbury Village successful.

Nathan Blackburne: The Banbury Village project is a development comprising over 400 dwellings that occupies a 9ha site adjacent to the Whitten Oval and West Footscray Railway Station. The site was once home to the former Olympic Tyre factory which Cedar Woods purchased, rezoned, remediated and then submitted the planning application with council. We first acquired the site in 2006 and commenced development in 2008.

I think the project has been a great success in terms of providing a good example of what is possible with urban renewal on a large scale in inner Melbourne. It' showcases a contemporary architectural style, attractive streetscapes, a variety of housing typologies with the provision of a central park. The project has been met with strong demand and I think that's in part due to the quality of the design outcome that has been achieved.

Sales for the final stage Botanica Apartments have been strong. The project contains a mix of 1 and 2 bedroom apartments and presents the last opportunity to buy into the Banbury Village development.

LD: What was the main factor/drawcard for Cedar Woods getting involved with urban renewal in Footscray, and in particular this site?

NB: Cedar Woods from the outset had our eye on inner Melbourne sites that we felt were ripe for renewal. Footscray was yet to go through regeneration in any meaningful manner and we identified it as a suburb with firstly sites available for renewal, and secondly significant upside in pricing.

Banbury Village along with other developments in the area acted as a catalyst and a lot of families and professionals wanted to be close to the CBD. Hence buyers consider Footscray as a viable option when they realised that they could get a brand new home for a relatively affordable price.

<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/gs-cedarwoodsmd3-external_11.jpg" rel="gallery-all" title="Botanica Apartments at Banbury Village. Image courtesy Cedar Woods"><img alt="" class="image-article-full-width-580px" height="156" src="/sites/urban.melbourne/files/styles/article_full_width_580px/public/pictures/article-images/gs-cedarwoodsmd3-external_11.jpg?itok=MdIKWPbT" title="Botanica Apartments at Banbury Village. Image courtesy Cedar Woods" width="580"></a>

<figcaption>Botanica Apartments at Banbury Village. Image courtesy Cedar Woods</figcaption></figure>LD: So were they essentially your target market for Banbury Village?

NB: The variety of product means that there was a variety of household structures that were attracted to the project so we have had a mix of singles, couples and young families with probably a greater focus on the family category. This is fairly representative of our expectations and I should say that the project's proximity to the university has attracted a lot of younger people as well.

It was the mix of potential buyer types that made this project attractive for us in the first place.

LD: You touched on the architecture briefly. Is there any particular reason for engaging ROTHELOWMAN for the next stage, Botanica Apartments?

NB: I should mention that dKO were the architects responsible for the majority of the Banbury Village development and ROTHELOWMAN who are well regarded architects have designed the main building and the centrepiece of the development in Botanica Apartments. We wanted to ensure from the beginning that we achieved a quality design outcome that fit in well with the earlier developments and so we chose ROTHELOWMAN because of their reputation within the industry for medium-density apartment developments in inner Melbourne.

We have previously worked with RL on other integrated housing developments and their work for us has been exceptional.

LD: Is there scope for similar projects for Cedar Woods in the future? What's the next project post Banbury?

NB: We see a lot of opportunity for urban renewal projects in Melbourne, in both the inner and middle ring suburbs. In the last couple of years Cedar Woods has acquired two major sites that will deliver similar projects to what has been delivered at Banbury Village.

Firstly we acquired 6.8ha in St Albans next to the train station which the State Government has announced will be subject to approximately $200m in grade separation works and a new station. The project will have a similar mix of houses, townhouses and apartments and that capitalises on the proximity to the redeveloped train station and the retail centre of St Albans.

The St Albans development will be known as St A and will have a very similar impact on St Albans in the same way that Banbury Village has had on its surrounds. St A will seek to deliver a contemporary housing form with some central parkland and all within a few hundred metres of the proposed new station.

We then have the Jackson Green development in Clayton South which is a 6.5ha site that we recently settled on and will accommodate over 250 dwellings which again will comprise a mix of houses, townhouses and apartments. It's the site of the former Sigma Pharmaceuticals adjacent to the Centre and Carinish Road level crossing. It's one of the bigger sites in the area and we're excessively happy to have purchased it.

A part of our Victorian strategy is to acquire inner and middle suburban sites in Melbourne and we're pleased that we have four projects in the portfolio that fit that profile.

<h2>Large Footscray infill sites see movement</h2>

<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/merchant-square_image001.jpg" rel="gallery-all" title="Kavellaris Urban Design's scheme for Kinnears . Image courtesy KUD"><img alt="" class="image-article-full-width-580px" height="387" src="/sites/urban.melbourne/files/styles/article_full_width_580px/public/pictures/article-images/merchant-square_image001.jpg?itok=lPtjpn56" title="Kavellaris Urban Design's scheme for Kinnears . Image courtesy KUD" width="580"></a>

<figcaption>Kavellaris Urban Design's scheme for Kinnears . Image courtesy KUD</figcaption></figure>In addition to Banbury Village, The Kinnears site fronting Ballarat Road is also due for development after being dormant for years. Now owned by Guangzhou-based R&amp;F Properties, the four hectare site joins another of the developers land holdings in Fishermans Bend, both of which are capable of housing thousands of people when realised.

Incidentally Kavellaris Urban Design are carrying a suite of renders for a redeveloped Kinnears on their website, one of which is seen above. Whether this is mere coincidence or a precursor to a planning application remains to be seen.

<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/1257-974-1412901261.jpg" rel="gallery-all" title="Victoria University Student Accommodation. Image courtesy ADCO"><img alt="" class="image-article-full-width-580px" height="293" src="/sites/urban.melbourne/files/styles/article_full_width_580px/public/pictures/article-images/1257-974-1412901261.jpg?itok=VFYwSCts" title="Victoria University Student Accommodation. Image courtesy ADCO" width="580"></a>

<figcaption>Victoria University Student Accommodation. Image courtesy ADCO</figcaption></figure>The other current project of note consumes a fraction of what is a sprawling at-grade gravel car park opposite Victoria University's Ballarat Road campus. Valued at $47 million, the 12 level student accommodation project is currently under construction with ADCO building the project.

Containing 504 beds, the project is scheduled to be completed in time for the 2016 academic year.
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Banbury Village leading the Footscray development charge

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Urban.com.au recently caught up with <a href="http://www.chc.com.au/">ClarkeHopkinsClarke</a> Partner Toby Lauchlan to discuss their Pica development in Richmond which forms part of their growing body of work.

<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/140623_-_richmond_aerial_-_final_2000_reduced.jpg" rel="gallery-all" title="Pica Richmond Aerial. © Clarke Hopkins Clarke"><img alt="" class="image-article-full-width-580px" height="435" src="/sites/urban.melbourne/files/styles/article_full_width_580px/public/pictures/article-images/140623_-_richmond_aerial_-_final_2000_reduced.jpg?itok=BOkbv51t" title="Pica Richmond Aerial. © Clarke Hopkins Clarke" width="580"></a>

<figcaption>Pica Richmond Aerial. © ClarkeHopkinsClarke</figcaption></figure>Laurence Dragomir: Can you provide us with a brief overview of Pica's internal specs including apartment sizes, finishes and what differentiates the development from a buyer's perspective?

Toby Lauchlan: We started Pica back in 2011, it comprises 19 bespoke apartments over six storeys at 8-10 New Street in inner Richmond. It's a brilliant location, in really close proximity to parks, Fitzroy Gardens, the MCG and so forth. The developer owns a ballooning company called <a href="http://www.picturethisballooning.com.au/">Picture This Ballooning</a> and has operated onsite for many, many years in the current building so there was a strong reference to this ballooning culture in Melbourne and the history of the site.

In essence it's about reinventing the site for the new generation of people that are going to live there, so the exterior responds to this with a strong ballooning reference which has been abstracted over the height of the building. We've now got a series of rectilinear forms that appear to float up and over the streetscape, and then there are a number of large panels that began as direct images of balloons and through working closely with David Pidgeon (graphic designer) the images evolved into a series of pixellated references of clouds, skies and balloons. The panels also incorporate visual cues to Melbourne's four seasons in a day.

There are taller buildings around Richmond, but this is taller than its immediate context so it offers up some spectacular views. Much of the marketing material associated with the project revolved around the views and the artwork.

Croten Investment's Damian Crock has been closely involved all the way along the process, working together with the interiors team at ClarkeHopkinsClarke (CHC) to create a neutral palette inside. It's a very black and white scheme but with really crisp finishes; black taps and other fittings, black high-gloss overhead cupboards above the kitchens with a white joinery base. We've tried to keep the palette simple internally but quite vibrant externally.

The development targets the owner-occupier market; every apartment is different, no two apartments are the same and there's a mix of 9 one-bedroom and 10 two-bedroom apartments ranging from approximately 50sqm to one that is over 100sqm on the top floor with views towards the city. There's a small café on the ground level near the main entry, 14 car spaces, 20 bicycle parks and 2 motorcycle spaces spread across ground and first floor.

With only 19 apartments it's quite a compact development, very boutique but with some great height on it.

LD: With no two apartments being the same did that throw up any challenges for the design team?

TL: If you compare it to other apartment buildings that we're doing across Melbourne within the middle ring and inner urban areas, predominantly we do try and get repetition where possible. This leads to efficiency in apartment types but on a project like Pica, which is quite constrained site-wise, has setback requirements and so forth, the inevitable result was that we ended up with different apartment types. In saying that there's a lot of standardisation in joinery units, kitchens and bathrooms. So that did throw up some challenges but nothing too extreme.

<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/140611_-_richmond_-_living_-_kitchen_-_final_-_2000.jpg" rel="gallery-all" title="Pica interior. © Clarke Hopkins Clarke"><img alt="" class="image-article-full-width-580px" height="390" src="/sites/urban.melbourne/files/styles/article_full_width_580px/public/pictures/article-images/140611_-_richmond_-_living_-_kitchen_-_final_-_2000.jpg?itok=4Y42jHM0" title="Pica interior. © Clarke Hopkins Clarke" width="580"></a>

<figcaption>Pica interior. © ClarkeHopkinsClarke</figcaption></figure>LD: Can you tell us a bit about the practice, the type of work you do?

TL: There's 65 people in the practice, so it's a large practice and we're quite diverse in the sectors that we target. The practice was founded in 1960 by partners Les Clarke, David Hopkins and Jack Clarke, designing houses but also with a real focus on the retail and education sectors.

Melbourne’s ClarkeHopkinsClarke has more than 50 plus years’ experience in creating vibrant communities across the design of entire urban communities as well as education, multi-residential, health and aged care projects.

CHC’s extensive knowledge of technical requirements and ability to lead design trends, across a variety of building types are critical to our success.

As well as our multi-sector portfolio of works CHC are currently carrying out a major research process into the key elements that make up a vibrant community and are actively leading the discussion on our St Germain greenfield development with the State Government’s Metropolitan Planning Authority as to how these theories can be tested in reality. www.creatingvibrantcommunities.com aims to start to bring together a wider array of stakeholders, designers and government and provide new tools to help improve the quality of life for those living in new greenfield suburbs.

LD: Would it be correct to say that CHC seem excessively strong in mixed-use developments. Would you say that this is now the practice's area of expertise?

TL: We've developed and evolved over the years so yes we do a lot of mixed-use and Pica for example is essentially a mixed-use project with retail being a very small component to it. We do a lot of pure residential but also a lot of mixed-use with a residential focus that include a small cafe at ground floor, SOHO's or offices for example. There's also a number of large retail focused projects with apartments, with townhouses etc, so there's a real cross section.

Then there's the outer urban but my focus within the practice is multi-res and mixed use in the middle and inner urban developments.

LD: What do you / the practice consider to be the main factors which most influence a CHC design and sets it apart from other architectural practices in Melbourne?

TL: I think having a real experience across all sectors allows us to bring that experience into individual projects, particularly those middle ring areas like Brunswick, Doncaster, Essendon Glen Huntly, Kew; sort of scattered everywhere. We work closely with a lot of councils during the town planning and pre-application phases, we provide community spaces, a strong retail base to the building that the apartment focus can really drive off that as well.

We have a really good design ethos in the practice, we attempt to push every project, getting individuality and strong identities to our buildings, driving off those for the marketing. But then there's also a real focus on the provision of amenity and really maximising it: the natural light, the openness, terraces, the interface with the public realm and then creating a sense of community within.

We do a thorough site analysis looking at the context, the history of the site, the amenities within the precinct that can be used by future residents, how does the retail respond to the existing retail strip. There's a lot of aspects that we look at to bring into and help inform the project as well as responding with our clients' imperative and ensuring the project will be successful for them. There's the marketing side of it so if a project's not marketable, if it doesn't generate any interest or residents and tenants don't like the building then it's not a successful project.

LD: It seems like the practice places a strong emphasis on the macro scale as well. Looking beyond just the site in question at not just its immediate context, but also how it fits in within a greater precinct?

TL: Our practice works on a number of new growth suburbs, new town centres and so we're doing a lot of urban design work in those areas with projects like <a href="http://www.chc.com.au/soho-village/">Soho Village</a> which is a project CHC Partner Dean Landy has been working on down at Point Cook. It comprises apartments, townhouses, a small boutique supermarket (name to be confirmed), church and office buildings; essentially designing that whole community, making sure that it works and that it fits in within a predominantly single storey, single dwelling suburb.

Having that experience through to working with Coles and Woolworths who are a couple of our bigger clients that are also involved with a lot of mixed-use developments such as <a href="http://www.chc.com.au/highett-road-shopping-centre-and-apartments/">Highett Road</a>. The project was completed a year or so ago and features 130 apartments above a full line Woolworths supermarket with 17 specialty stores and office space. Having those projects and the connections they create within the community; this type of project influences our inner urban residential work and other mixed use projects.

<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/2013_udia_vic_awards_highett_mixed_use_02.jpg" rel="gallery-all" title="Highett Road Shopping Centre and Apartments. © Clarke Hopkins Clarke"><img alt="" class="image-article-full-width-580px" height="325" src="/sites/urban.melbourne/files/styles/article_full_width_580px/public/pictures/article-images/2013_udia_vic_awards_highett_mixed_use_02.jpg?itok=xG8I8cuJ" title="Highett Road Shopping Centre and Apartments. © Clarke Hopkins Clarke" width="580"></a>

<figcaption>Highett Road Shopping Centre and Apartments. © ClarkeHopkinsClarke</figcaption></figure>A few projects that I'd like to mention are one that was just completed and launched last week in Doncaster, Six Thiele Street. A purely multi-residential development of 50 luxury apartments, with no retail component as it's located on the fringe of Doncaster's retail precinct close to Westfield Shopping Centre, and features a mix of one and two beds over 4-storeys with a three bedroom apartment on top.

<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/thiele_-_exterior_-_final.jpg" rel="gallery-all" title="Six Thiele Street Doncaster. © Clarke Hopkins Clarke"><img alt="" class="image-article-full-width-580px" height="337" src="/sites/urban.melbourne/files/styles/article_full_width_580px/public/pictures/article-images/thiele_-_exterior_-_final.jpg?itok=fR9AgQfT" title="Six Thiele Street Doncaster. © Clarke Hopkins Clarke" width="580"></a>

<figcaption>Six Thiele Street Doncaster. © ClarkeHopkinsClarke</figcaption></figure>We then have a few in Brunswick such as Fabrik Apartments on Albert and Beith Street. The area is seeing quite a number of apartment buildings going up, one which we've been working on that's just been approved by council is in Breese St. It's 7 levels and has been praised by the council for its architecture and design. There's a cafe at ground with 60 or so apartments above that feature 6-star apartments with rain gardens and an environmental focus.

LD: Lastly, to finish us off, is the practice looking at making the transition to working on high-rise multi-residential projects?

TL: Going back many years we started off working on a number of 3-4 storey apartment buildings and it has increased with the middle ring being in the vicinity of 5-7 storeys which we're doing a lot of at the moment. We have looked at and are currently looking at a number of high-rise projects so stay tuned. One of the taller projects we have worked on is the <a href="http://www.chc.com.au/mutual-store-and-empire-apartments/"> Mutual Store and Empire Apartments</a> on Flinders Street, and that involved the construction of 14 new floors so still high-rise but not the 100-storey scale.

Stay tuned as there are definitely some high-rises in the pipeline as part of our portfolio of creating vibrant communities around all of our projects across every sector.

LD: Looking forward to hearing more about them in the not-too-distant future. Thanks again for your time Toby.
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Interview with Toby Lauchlan from ClarkeHopkinsClarke 

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Urban.com.au spoke with Hayball Managing Director Tom Jordan upon the practice's <a href="http://www.hayball.com.au/news/world-architecture-100-2015/">recent entry into the World Architecture top 100</a>. While exploring the factors which led to this achievement, various other topics such as current projects and future aspirations were discussed during an interview with Laurence Dragomir.

LD: The World Architecture 100 is based on data gathered via survey, ranking the biggest practices globally. What is your/the practice's view on how and why Hayball have advanced into the ranking - in terms of design strength and a purely business perspective?

TJ: I guess it's a product of our steady growth over the last few years which is ongoing and that's based on consolidating our profile in the key sectors we work in - multi-unit residential and education, but also new sectors and new markets. We've got the Sydney and Adelaide offices, we're active in Brisbane, all of which have contributed to growth. The practice has also had a number of works published and recognised by the Australian Institute of Architects which has helped build our profile and thus led to more work.

LD: Does the practice consider its inclusion in the WA100 as a matter of prestige within the industry or do you believe it will translate into an increase in job commissions?

TJ: I think the effects will be pretty subtle, but I think it doesn't hurt the profile - it's more profile building material.

LD: Looking at Woods Bagot for example, who are the top ranked Australian practice at no. 7 on the list, they have a very global network and profile. As you mentioned Hayball now have offices in Sydney and Adelaide and are undertaking work in Brisbane, do you forecast any further expansion potentially offshore in the not-too-distant future?

TJ: We're definitely open to it, but it would be opportunity driven if it were to happen. Hayball do work in South-East Asia at the moment but we do it all from here in Melbourne. In terms of opening an office in SE Asia, that's probably beyond a 5-year plan.

<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/tom_jordan_head_shot.jpg" rel="gallery-all" title="Hayball Managing Director Tom Jordan. © Hayball"><img alt="" class="image-article-full-width-580px" height="326" src="/sites/urban.melbourne/files/styles/article_full_width_580px/public/pictures/article-images/tom_jordan_head_shot.jpg?itok=LYMpD0-n" title="Hayball Managing Director Tom Jordan. © Hayball" width="580"></a>

<figcaption>Hayball Managing Director Tom Jordan. Image courtesy Hayball</figcaption></figure>LD: Do you mind providing us with an overview of the practice's staff numbers and the number of projects in progress at any one time?

TJ: Sure, we have a current staff of around 120 with all bar four located in our Melbourne office. In terms of project numbers we have around about 50 at the moment that are currently being worked on and there are others that are dormant.

LD: Are those projects predominantly multi-residential and education?

TJ: Historically they've made up the majority of our work but we're increasingly getting a lot more urban mater planning work, interiors work and institutional work of various types. So even though education and residential make up about 80% of our work the other sectors are starting to see an increase as an overall proportion of our work. It's been our strategy to maintain a diverse project mix as much as possible.

LD: With high-rise apartments in Melbourne being largely driven by offshore developers in recent times, have you found that your clientele has changed somewhat? Obviously the practice continues to work with Lend Lease on projects such as Studio Nine.

TJ: I think site acquisition is driven by offshore investors rather than developers. We've got one or two mainland Chinese clients but the majority of our work continues to be with Australian-based developers. We're doing work with Mammoth Empire (Malaysia) and we've been working with them for about five years both locally and in Malaysia.

They are a professional developer, not a land banker and are particularly active. But we're still doing work with Lend Lease, MAB and a host of smaller developers.

LD: Would the experience and publicity gained via working on a project such as Library at the Dock, being the first CLT (Cross Laminated Timber) public building to be built in Australia reinforce that view?

TJ: The effects of that are still emerging, but we expect that it will have a profile generating result. It will be really interesting to see where CLT goes and how widely adopted it becomes.

<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/libraryexternal21080px.jpg" rel="gallery-all" title="Library at The Dock. © Lend Lease"><img alt="" class="image-article-full-width-580px" height="386" src="/sites/urban.melbourne/files/styles/article_full_width_580px/public/pictures/article-images/libraryexternal21080px.jpg?itok=odKhbdVy" title="Library at The Dock. © Lend Lease" width="580"></a>

<figcaption>Library at The Dock. © Lend Lease</figcaption></figure>LD: Do you see the practice becoming a really strong proponent for CLT or is it something that is driven by developers? 

TJ: Yes CLT is a great system but it does require quite a specific technical understanding as it's not a conventional construction system by any means. We've developed that from working on the library so I do think Hayball are a proponent of it.

We’re really pushing forward with it because of the range of benefits in terms of cost, ESD, minimal wastage, reduced embodied energy and very quick on site.

LD: The practice has recently introduced a employee share scheme, becoming the first in Australian architecture firm to do so. Can you tell us a bit more about that?

TJ: We have a small number of non-director shareholders and we recently expanded that group. It is about acknowledging the contribution people make to the practice, retaining and attracting talent which leads to growth in the business and giving key staff a connection to the financial performance of the business.

LD: Do you think it's something that will become more prevalent in the industry?

TJ: Possibly, but it will be slow. Obviously engineering practices have been doing it for a very long time with great success but they're different beasts relative to architectural practices. I don't see it as being a dramatic shift in that direction. We're undertaking it in a systematic and targeted way, steadily broadening the ownership and we see it as very positive program for our practice.

LD: And just to finish off what do you think the future holds for the practice and what do you see as being some of the major challenges facing the industry in the future?

TJ: What we have in our plan is expanding our exposure geographically particularly along the eastern seaboard including Adelaide - we've got a bit of work in Tasmania at the moment - but also getting more exposure to higher education and commercial sectors that we don't currently have a lot of. That's where Hayball's heading.

Overall the profession does face a number of challenges. I think the influence that architects have in the procurement process has diminished over the last 10-15 years and there is an opportunity to strengthen our role through the whole building delivery process, not just during the early design and planning approval phases in order to achieve high quality built outcomes for the community.

LD: Thanks again for your time, Tom.
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Hayball enters the ranks of the World Architecture top 100 for 2015

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I recently sat down with dKO Principal Koos de Keijzer and dKO Design director Jesse Linardi for an informal discussion regarding their experiences in both Sydney and Melbourne. This follows on from Mark's initial article which explored the <a href="/expert-insights/buying/observing-the-current-melbourne-sydney-development-dynamic" target="_blank">Melbourne-Sydney development dynamic</a> and the increasing movement of skilled industry-related firms and personnel between both cities.

Managing architectural teams in both Melbourne and Sydney made the duo excellent individuals to pose questions to, and explore the different nuances between both cities.

<h2>Q &amp; A with dKO's Koos de Keijzer and Jesse Linardi</h2>

LD: How long ago did dKO establish the Sydney Office?

KdK: 10 years, now.

LD: Do you find you are working on similar projects across both offices?

JL: Historically we predominantly worked on housing in Sydney, with a push more recently towards medium-density high-rise and low-rise, and that’s been with developers from both Melbourne and Sydney.

As you would know the market in Melbourne is hot, partly due to this perception of the ease with which you can get a planning permit for a significant building in Melbourne. In Sydney they’ve got an additional set of guidelines in SEP65 which is a lot more onerous than what we currently have in Melbourne.

LD: An announcement on a similar set of guidelines here in Melbourne isn’t too far off.

JL: Hopefully as I think there’s some value in that. Larger sites in Melbourne have been bought up generally by offshore developers of late, mostly from Asian countries. The flow-on effect is that the prices for these sites have gone up and so the local guys are looking to Sydney which has less competition presently.

LD: Have you found it’s the smaller, more boutique developers here in Melbourne who are the ones turning their attention towards Sydney?

JL: It seems to be the developers looking towards purchasing sites in the 10 million - 20 million site value under pressure. Keeping in mind that that’s still quite a lot of money for a site, yet they’re the ones who are getting pushed out in the current Melbourne market.

The last couple of years has seen Koos and I have driving that process - we go up to Sydney, he's there two days a week every week and I'm in Sydney at least one day a week. We have a team of twenty and there's constant communication; as I mentioned earlier there's been that real push up there into the medium density projects.

KdK: Now probably the big difference between Sydney and Melbourne is that land is much more scarce in Sydney so certainly from a land efficiency point ot view, and density point of view, there's a different paradigm in Sydney than there is in Melbourne.

There's still an abundance of greenfield, idyllic suburban sites here in Melbourne than you would find in Sydney. Melbourne in many ways, is still a very suburban city whereas Sydney, because it's actually constrained by Hawkesbury, by the National Park to the south, by the Blue Mountains, the Basin, is quite limited with development sites so the whole concept of density becomes quite considerable.

For the last few years we've completed a lot of masterplanning, urban design and now apartment design in the inner suburbs of Sydney.

JL: I'll add the Sydney sphere is probably a little less driven by investors than in Melbourne, where the bigger projects here are marketed internationally. I'm not saying they're not in Sydney but much more of the product would be targeted at the owner occupier, so it's a different kind of apartment.

KdK: I feel the big difference for Melbourne architects working in Sydney is that historically Melbourne architects try a little bit harder. We're competing with a lot of big firms up there so when we look at a site we might look at 3-4 schemes and really do copious amounts of research and visualisation of what the urban form might feel like. What you'll find is a lot of our competition up there doesn't actually do that.

LD: Eve in Sydney has been a big success story for your office.

JL: Eve is Fridcorp's first major building in Sydney and was the result of a design competition. dKO prepared the original... there's a two stage DA process in Sydney where the first stage is basically a bulk scale, massing envelope and then there's an invited competition run by the City of Sydney. Three firms were invited: ourselves, SJB and Woods Bagot. It's a paid competition and we were provided with a brief by Fridcorp and we obviously won that competition which was a big win for dKO.

KdK: Maybe explain why you think we won.

JL: Honestly, I think we won the competition because we do a lot of projects in Melbourne where we work in the Richmonds, the Collingwoods and those sorts of suburbs where it's critical to understand context. The culture of the suburb, the materiality, the way people live et cetera and so you don't end up with a big glass tower. Erskineville - this is probably not the right analogy but it's a Collingwood, Fitzroy kind of suburb undergoing gentrification.

KdK: With a lot of really tight, quite small worker's cottages.

JL: So we really embraced that language, the materials, the nature of the building not being monolithic - that's honestly why I think we won.

KdK: And that really is a strong part of our office ethos, we do feel quite strongly about context - a building in Erskineville Sydney shouldn't look the same as a building in Port Melbourne. There isn't kind of like this 'house style'. Certainly when you have that real fine grain context, Victorian terraces and parapets and bagged brick - it's understanding that and trying to identify how we use that potentially.

<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/eve_exterior.jpg" rel="gallery-all" title="The dKO-designed Eve apartment complex in Sydney's Erskenville"><img alt="" class="image-article-full-width-580px" height="412" src="/sites/urbanmelbourne.info/files/styles/article_full_width_580px/public/pictures/article-images/eve_exterior.jpg?itok=lZlSWEF8" title="The dKO-designed Eve apartment complex in Sydney's Erskenville" width="580"></a>

<figcaption>The dKO-designed Eve apartment complex in Sydney's Erskenville</figcaption></figure>LD: What was the response to Eve from people within the neighbourhood? Was there a sense of NIMBYism?

KdK: That project is within a precinct, similar to Fishermans Bend where council have a masterplan and has actually been quite adamant as to how the precinct will evolve and develop. Currently there are a lot of old factories, warehouses and workers cottages - in many ways it's not too dissimilar to what's happening down in Port Melbourne's Bay Street where you've got that fine grain mixed with larger buildings.

To Sydney City Council's credit I think they've been fairly... almost European in how they've crafted Erskineville whereas here in Melbourne it's very much left to the developers and architects. In Sydney they probably pre-plan it a lot more, Jesse?

JL: And they also have floor space ratios so you can't do 300m towers on sites that are too small. I actually think it's a better outcome in the end.

LD: Do you think there's lessons that Melbourne should learn from Sydney and vice-versa? From a planning and architectural design perspective?

JL: I think it's obvious that Sydney maintains a the more rigorous approach to planning.

LD: Do you feel there is a perception that the CBD and some inner city suburbs in Melbourne are a bit of a free for all?

JL: I feel that Melbourne's CBD possibly has that perception about it. Certainly City of Yarra, those municipalities around the edges, City of Moreland, they're far more involved and hands on but I don't think it's City of Melbourne, it's that next level up in planning.

KdK: I do currently think Melbourne is a free for all. I think what has made Melbourne special in the past is the diversity of spaces, the big streets, the smaller streets, how the urban form touches the ground. I think a lot of the scale of the buildings.... where everyone's seduced by a sexy skyline but at the end of the day it's about what happens at ground level that makes a world of difference to the city. In 50 years time we will probably look back and say "Geez what were we thinking?".

JL: Sydney could learn tremendously from Melbourne's laneway culture and the grittiness at ground level. Certainly in Sydney's CBD you don't have that quality that you have here. Speaking to a landscape architect in Sydney last week he was saying that they've started to adopt the Melbourne model of streets there. So there definitely is a sharing of intellectual property.

KdK: Melbourne can learn with regards to Sydney's stance toward residential amenity. Having buildings in Melbourne where half the apartments face south I feel is just awful, whereas in Sydney the code says that only 10% of total apartments can face south. That actually forces you to design in a different manner, where intimately some sites work and some sites don't.

LD: Do you want to comment on the planning guidelines that were covered in the AFR article? The three key points were 1) minimum sizes for apartments 2) must be north facing 3) 20% of the site must be open space.

JL: I don't agree on the minimum size for the apartment.

LD: Neither do I.

KdK: I was actually part of the process and I think the process is good. Certainly I think you can do 22sqm apartments well: it's siting and orientation that's what's critical to design quality.

LD: For me what it comes down to is the amenity and provision of quality natural light and ventilation. You can have a well designed micro apartment that you could live in comfortably.

JL: Absolutely it comes down to design.

KdK: Apartment size I feel is quite cultural. Back in the 80's they were much larger, now they're much smaller and I think the more sophisticated the market becomes the more compact the apartments can become.

If you go to Hong Kong there are some really compact apartments that are still afforded a great degree of amenity. The reason why this issue has come into focus in Melbourne is that there's a lot of shonky developers that are racking and stacking their apartments without analyzing amenity and outlook.

LD: Appreciate your time gentlemen.
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dKO talks on the Melbourne-Sydney development dymanic

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It is always a worthwhile exercise in gleaning the opinions of others, more so when the person in question represents a growing wave of non-resident apartment buyers seeking to claim a slice of the Melbourne residential market.

Urban.com.au had the opportunity to pose a number of questions to Light House purchaser and Melbourne semi-resident, Raymond Wei.

In this vox pop of sorts we began by asking the question perhaps most pertinent: would you describe yourself as an investor or an owner-occupier?

RW: I view myself as an owner, I won't be using my apartment year-round but when I'm in Melbourne it is my residence.

MB: Melbourne's skyline is always changing with new projects appearing; were views a consideration when you purchased or merely a benefit?

RW: Everyone would choose sunlight and views if they had the choice. I know Melbourne is changing quickly so views will change but I appreciate direct sunlight and not living in the shadow all the time. Light House will give me both.

MB: What attracted to you the development, in terms of location and design?

RW: I know what Melbourne can be like with its weather, so I was impressed with the winter garden designed into the apartment; it creates a really comfortable residential environment and gives me another usable space when I want it.

The location is great, I have the market and shops a few minutes away.

<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/lhintimage.jpg" rel="gallery-all" title="Light House Melbourne's dining room"><img alt="" class="image-article-full-width-580px" height="435" src="/sites/urbanmelbourne.info/files/styles/article_full_width_580px/public/pictures/article-images/lhintimage.jpg?itok=vErr877q" title="Light House Melbourne's dining room" width="580"></a>

<figcaption>Light House Melbourne's dining room</figcaption></figure>MB: How important was the interior design of the living spaces when considering your purchase?

RW: Very important as I will end up living in the apartment. Some people don't care so much, as they are just investors looking to buy an investment property. With Light House I looked at the quality of the living spaces plus I was impressed with the amount of natural light available.

MB: Would you use the communal facilities at Light House (e.g. the sanctuary spa and the entertainment lounge)?

RW: Yes, I will use all of them whilst living in Melbourne. Sometimes you want to get out of your house but not necessarily go outside - maybe the weather's not so good or so on - and the facilities allow me break my routine. I get to relax, work or socialise in quality spaces.

MB: Is a car park important or just an afterthought when living in the CBD?

RW: I require a car when in Melbourne, so absolutely parking becomes extremely important. It takes away all the headache of trying to find street parking in a city where they're not easy to find. It's certainly cheaper than getting charged hefty fees at public car park.

MB: As for the world's most livable city, what do you find attractive about living in Melbourne?

RW: Living in the city brings a lot of convenience. I'm within walking distance to major shopping centres, Victoria Market and many other attractions that local residents take as part of everyday life.

I really like the culturally diversified lifestyle, events, mixed cuisines and restaurants plus the varied festivals... Melbourne has a lot to offer in a concentrated area.
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silvermb

The rhyme and reason for buying in Melbourne 

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Urban.com.au's chat with Neometro Director James Tutton continues, following the <a href="/news/james-tutton-on-all-things-urban" target="_blank">first part</a> published earlier this week.

Neometro was the first property developer in Australia to gain <a href="http://www.bcorporation.net/" target="_blank">B Corporation</a> status - what are you doing above and beyond the norm?

To become a B Corporation member we really didn't have to change much in terms of what we were doing, although we did need to document a lot of what we were doing by way of community engagement, ESD, governance, equity participation from members, directors and so forth. A great example would be what we call in Australia the HR section of the questionnaires; if a staff member leaves your organisation under good terms - do you welcome them back should they want to return?

We had to document our policy where if a staff member expresses an interest in coming back, even if we don't have a job for them, we kind of just find one for them.

Can the process of gaining B Corporation status be daunting?

The experience can be daunting, there's no two ways about it. I think its quite sensible that the process is broken into two stages.

Initially you jump online, register, complete the questionnaires and I think we came up with roughly 70% - we're now on 86%. Post assessment, B Lab contact the prospective member and identify areas that need to change in your business in order to get certification. Thereafter what is effectively a random audit is conducted prior to certification.

Why is B Corporation status important in Australia?

I've worked quite a lot in the not-for-profit sector and I've seen the lack of entrepreneurialism in the sector. For profit used in the right way can be a massive force for good, ultimately though for-profit tends to attract the hungrier people, smarter people. Leveraging capitalism for positive social, community and environmental outcomes is not necessarily the norm in Australia.

The challenge is there hasn't been a language and metric around that and that's definitely emerging in America and continental Europe more than Australia. Currently there's a real tribe of like-minded entrepreneurs in Australia that aren't satisfied with merely working to climb the corporate ladder - <a href="http://www.bcorporation.net/" target="_blank">B Corporation</a> can give recognition to those people willing to make a difference.

Moving to your current project, 9 Smith Street. You've gone to effort to establish pop-up venues within the existing structure prior to construction. What purpose does this serve when the existing building is to be demolished?

We have <a href="https://www.facebook.com/3000acres" target="_blank">3000 acres</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/slopesprojects" target="_blank">Slopes Gallery</a> and <a href="http://www.broadsheet.com.au/melbourne/food-and-drink/article/place-holder-pops-fitzroy" target="_blank">Place Holder</a> which I feel can create or enhance the sense of community. Our display suite sits in behind Place Holder; personally I take the view that by offering people a well designed, beautiful space to engage and meet, it's a highly desirable outcome, even if they are temporary.

<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/9SMITH_IMAGES_FINAL_1_0.jpg" rel="gallery-all" title="Image © Neometro"><img alt="" class="image-article-full-width-580px" src="/sites/urbanmelbourne.info/files/styles/article_full_width_580px/public/pictures/article-images/9SMITH_IMAGES_FINAL_1_0.jpg?itok=u2IMyYHC" style="height:336px; width:580px" title="Image © Neometro"></a>

<figcaption>Image © Neometro</figcaption></figure>When will construction commence at 9 Smith Street?

We've committed to a twelve month period for the pop-up businesses, so early 2015 is anticipated start.

Will Neometro be in charge of the choice of commercial tenants for 9 Smith Street?

Absolutely, often you could look at some of our leasing decisions and say that's uncommericial. From our perspective if we develop a building and place a KFC down stairs, not only does that not sit well with us in terms of our social views, but when prospective buyers go reference our past projects and see that... it's a terrible impression.

The natural extension then becomes does Neometro have an ideal tenant in mind for 9 Smith Street?

Including retail is a bit of a no brainer, but I feel there's a real risk when you get dominated by hospitality. This precinct hasn't really attracted corporate retailers and I suspect that will be the case for quite some time; if that were change anywhere it might be along Gerturde Street but I think that's unlikely to be honest.

Independent retailers are our target and we're speaking to overseas brands who don't currently have a presence in the Melbourne market. Possibly a publishing or cycling apparel outlet, mind you we're looking to bring a number of brands to this site. In general I think this end of Smith Street is just amazing..it's really interesting. To see brands like Aesop next door, David Bromley doing his thing across the road, Double Monk, its a really positive thing and we're not looking to disturb the vibe of the area by introducing inappropriate retailers.

Clearly Neometro prides itself/beats the drum on the high quality living spaces you deliver?

I personally take the view if you deliver a well designed, beautiful space for people to live in, it has an impact upon their wellbeing and happiness - it's a critical factor which is quite often is overlooked. In saying that I'm not being defensive of the fact that we're selling apartments here between $495,000- $800,000, that is what it is. But I would argue that we're selling homes that people will be happy in as opposed to selling glossy pictures of what apartments might look like and then finding out a large margin exists between render and reality.

Without sounding in any way presumptuous on behalf of Neometro, I think we can play a small role in leading the sector toward a more socially driven outlook, and I think that's something that is possible. It's a sector that has a long way to go.

<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/Image8_17.jpg" rel="gallery-all" title="9 Smith Street, internally and externally. Images © Neometro"><img alt="" class="image-article-full-width-580px" src="/sites/urbanmelbourne.info/files/styles/article_full_width_580px/public/pictures/article-images/Image8_17.jpg?itok=wptQDhiA" style="height:211px; width:580px" title="9 Smith Street, internally and externally. Images © Neometro"></a>

<figcaption>9 Smith Street, internally and externally. Images © Neometro</figcaption></figure>Any plans to upscale to high-rise projects?

I think we would be reluctant to deliver a project over 80 apartments; we want to grow as a business doing more of the same as opposed to doing huge projects. A critical factor is depth of market as we find that with a quality of product, it's difficult to sell 200 units in an efficient timeframe whereas selling 50 units is doable, plus we have a focus on the owner occupier market with our projects which demands more intimate developments.

So brand recognition and hitting the target market are critical to Neometro?

Many developers sell through financial planning channels, we don't at all so sales are largely to owner-occupiers and sold by Neometro, not by some accountant in Wollongong. It's been very interesting in terms of Neometro being able to effectively articulate who we are and what we do to our market.

Neometro is in business to make a commercial return but we're also in business to make homes which we're immensely proud of. From a design perspective and in terms of build quality and amenity, I think we've articulated what we do a bit better in this project than what we have in others.

We're proud of what we do, if you look at our credentials it paints a history of the projects we've completed and it also talks about what we've done from a social and community perspective.

What's next for Neometro?

We're about to start construction on George Corner, it's a great project. We're also halfway through Walsh Street, South Yarra and are about to start construction on a project in Toorak.

Right now we're also looking at three other development sites, one south of the river and two north which in a broad sense are not dissimilar to what we've done here at 9 Smith Street. One in particular has a very substantial community interface to it for a variety of reasons - it will be one interesting project!
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James Tutton on all things Urban (continued)

<html><body>
Recently Apartments.com.au sat down with James Tutton for a thoroughly interesting, jovial and at times colourful interview on all things urban. A man whose credentials are impressive as they are varied, chief amongst them is co-director of property development firm Neometro.

<blockquote>
James joined Neometro four years ago to drive the development and commercial side of the business while maintaining its strong design integrity. James is the entrepreneur behind the immensely successful Moonlight Cinema, pioneering the outdoor cinema business in Australia and eventually selling it to an ASX listed corporate group in 2006.
<cite><a href="http://neometro.com.au/cms-our-people/james-tutton.phps">Our People: Neometro Developments</a></cite>
</blockquote>

<h2>The CV</h2>

<ul>
<li>Board Member - B Corporation, a not for profit organization which provides assessment &amp; certification for companies seeking to deliver positive social &amp; environmental outcomes while ensuring strong financial performance.</li>
	<li>Non-Executive Director - Shout For Good, a web and app based fundraising platform. Shout aims to leverage technology and social media to generate micro donations for its clients while providing consumers with a streamlined &amp; functional user experience</li>
	<li>Co-founder / Director - SMILING MIND - a "modern meditation for young people". An entrepreneurial not for profit organisation that has been established to teach young people Mindfulness Meditation as a stress management &amp; resilience tool.</li>
	<li>Director / owner - NEOMETRO</li>
</ul>
<h2>The interview</h2>

We begin by asking James: what challenges surround increased density and appropriately sized urban development?

The inefficiency is evident. I'm not a planner, just a guy with a BA in Philosophy, however to me it does not seem like rocket science. It makes so much more sense to build housing which is in immediate proximity to infrastructure, transport, employment, education and everything else. You go out there and look at broad acre developments; this is inefficient in the context of environmental issues, in context of community happiness, transport issues, hospitals etc. It goes on and on and on.

You then look at towers and think... well? I'm not saying towers are wrong, they absolutely have their place but it's about finding an appropriate balance. One of the things if find quite challenging is that you can have a precinct in immediate proximity to rail infrastructure etc. earmarked for medium density development in an area where there are ostensibly progressive thinkers, who then take developers to VCAT with the view that oh no you're evil, you're creating homes for people. That's so hypocritical!

It's the core of a real NIMBY culture which is just is not that positive. It's generalising but some of the views coming out of the Greens have been completely at odds with sensible environmentally focused planning. It can be madness.

Will planning zone reforms coax Neometro into markets beyond its established inner Melbourne footprint?

I look at Brunswick and think absolutely, there are opportunities there. Although can you afford to do an apartment development in Dandenong? No, that's the economics being what they are.

We love Brunswick; there's a lot of poor quality development there although my view is the poor quality development is not a reflection of demand. There's a lot of demand for high quality development from a buyers perspective.

Can you elaborate on why outer ring locations such as Dandenong or Frankston are difficult apartment market from a developers perspective?

It's a mixture of factors. Let me begin by saying inner city sites carry a higher land price therefore you need to get density to pay for it - a $6-7 million dollar slice of land requires you get yield by height. Construction costs being what they are dictate that lower density dwellings such as townhouses are not possible for the site. Should you go to Dandenong, the economics are that the land is cheaper and therefore building townhouses is more efficient in that context, and also meets the level of buyer demand.

I look at Frankston from a planning perspective and think why isn't there fast train and medium density housing in Frankston? It's an absolute no brainer and would entice property developers, but I don't think its going to happen.

<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/Dandenong_CBD_in_2013_as_viewed_from_railway_station.png" rel="gallery-all" title="Dandenong anyone? Image courtesy Wikipedia"><img alt="" class="image-article-full-width-580px" src="/sites/urbanmelbourne.info/files/styles/article_full_width_580px/public/pictures/article-images/Dandenong_CBD_in_2013_as_viewed_from_railway_station.png?itok=VvfDRcD4" style="height:397px; width:580px" title="Dandenong anyone? Image courtesy Wikipedia"></a>

<figcaption>Dandenong anyone? Image courtesy Wikipedia</figcaption></figure>Is Government investing public money via schemes such as Revitalising Central Dandenong a worthwhile pursuit?

Not my view as a professional, just my lay view but there's a tipping point where things become viable. I mentioned Frankston in the sense that I feel it's very underpriced from a residential perspective because there is no quality public transport infrastructure through to Melbourne. It's just my two cents worth but like Dandenong there is an amount of stigma attached in a social context which has an impact on prospective buyers.

Long term and with further investment it's highly doable. Box Hill for instance is now in its own right more of an economic hub and on top of that it's closer to Melbourne which is attractive to potential apartment buyers. Whereas in Frankston the rail line is not that workable which limits connectivity to Melbourne, although the beaches are beautiful and it has the infrastructure that goes with a small city.

What would make a property developer venture into outer suburbs?

Should the factors that we've discussed become reality, from Neometro's perspective we'd also need to have the comfort that people would recognise what we offer. Even in Fitzroy where we have a design literate audience, some people come along and say Neometro is selling product for x thousands per square metre and the bloke down the road is selling it for one thousand dollars a square metre less. On top of that Neometro's apartments are proportionately larger, because that's just what a nice apartments need to be.

The guy down the road has a dog box; you apply the lower per square metre rate and the fact is that it's smaller - the actual quantum in dollar terms between one apartment and another becomes significant. Around here (Fitzroy) people look at that and understand it - 'I'm getting what I pay for' - that's the key.

But when you hit outer suburbs such as Dandenong, do you have a buyer group who actually understand the variations of quality on offer? That's a challenging thing, I'm not saying they don't, I'm just not personally convinced there is that market.

<h2>To be continued</h2>

During this week, <a href="/news/james-tutton-on-all-things-urban-continued" target="_blank">part two of our chat</a> with James Tutton will focus on B Corporation status and what it means, inner-city issues plus Neometero's current and future direction.
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