150 KING STREET
Client: Galileo | Program: Residential Tower + Retail | Floor Area: 12,000 sqm
Team: Inhabit, Taylor Thomson Whitting, S4B Studio, Arup, Neil Bradford | Consultants: VOS Group, Aurecon, WT Partnership
Competition scheme for a residential building at the north west corner of Hyde Park in central Sydney. The project site is significant, marking an important civic transition between the quietude of the park and heritage listed St James Church and courts to the south, and the intensity and density of the city core to the north.
The council approved building envelope for the site included a setback at mid level, an outcome of generically applied planning controls which are inconsistent with the Hyde Park context. Our scheme challenged this position, and proposed a building form with a unified southern facade that created a singular and composed building expression as a calm backdrop to the historic church and courts. The proposal is inspired by its place, and exhibits simplicity, elegance and above appropriateness.
The building is shaped by the unique circumstances of its place and is captured in three key moves:
The first move pushes the top of the building inwards. This move significantly increases the solar opportunity of upper level apartments - a core local planning requirement for apartments within the City.
The second move inverts the first, pushing inwards the southern edge of the building base. This maneuver greatly increases the generosity of the ground plane. It also opens up new view corridors along both Elizabeth and Phillip Streets, enhancing the visual connectivity between pedestrian and the heritage precinct.
And the final move is the gentle inward and outward nudging of the southern façade, facilitating the creation of a slender, classically proportioned and unified building face.
A new civic domain was proposed at the base of the building - a finely crafted and detailed civic space inspired by its place. The top of the building was reserved for residential apartments embodying the luxury of the pre-eminent city address.
