Smart Design Studio’s masterplan for Arlington Grove has delivered a beautifully landscaped and accessible residential precinct. This former industrial site has been transformed with four new buildings accommodating 246 well-planned apartments arrayed around a series of leafy courtyards and lanes. On an urban scale, the site was conceived as an edge to Johnson Park which sits to the north-west. And at a finer grain, as a continuation of the orthogonal street network to the south-east.
Maximising the number of bright, sunny apartments with views to the Sydney CBD skyline and the park, the four buildings have been carefully orientated to the site. This, in partnership with each apartment’s narrow footprint, creates natural cross ventilation and minimises reliance on air-conditioning. The building heights are unified, sitting at either four storeys, where they address the local streets, or stepping up to eight storeys towards Johnson Park. Naturally rich in texture and complementing the neighbouring buildings of Dulwich Hill, brick was selected for all buildings.
Expand ContentBorrowing principals from classical buildings, the architecture utilises carefully composed and simple, long elevations with sculptural, articulated corners. Contrasting the almost metronomic rhythm of the façades, these corners provide dynamism and interest, creating a strong identity for each of the four buildings and verdant site.
Two storey high colonnades line the perimeter of the courtyards, which connect via generous terraces directly to the squares, lanes and gardens of the site. The façades of the buildings are further articulated via deep brick blades which form a brise soleil (to deflect sunlight and reduce heat gain). The orientation of the brick blades assists in passive solar control, protecting building interiors from summer sun while allowing low-angled winter sun to naturally warm the interiors.
Each building has a clear address along the new publicly accessible private lanes and green spaces. These in turn are augmented by “Arlington Square”, which, as a public space, has transformed a dead-end street into an urban junction, marking the entrance to the new tram stop.
Dark brick fences and paving at the base of the building extend the architecture into the surrounding open spaces. Importantly, the whole was conceived as a community within a community with significant overlap. As such, in addition to the landscaped courtyards and lanes, there are many facilities that help to build a community including a shed to repair bikes and assemble furniture, a bookable club room, BBQ, community garden and fruit trees lining the laneways.
2019 Commendation AIA NSW Architecture Award Multi-Unit Residential
2019 Commendation Think Brick Horbury Hunt High Multi-Unit Residential
