Media: Winning design for Midtown MacPark tower sits amongst the forest

Rothelowman’s submission for the Block B3 design excellence competition at Frasers Property’s Midtown MacPark has resulted in the practice receiving the design contract for the complex.

 

The practice’s proposal prioritises human experience, building their proposal from the scale of a person, before evolving towards the scale of the community and the entire precinct. The final product is a humanistic-led approach, which elevates the living experience and intensifies the notion of feeling at home.

Comprising 235 dwellings, each residence within the tower is individually tuned into its context. The building maximises sunlight, utilises winds for ventilation and frames views of Shrimptons Creek, the city and the landscape, to extend the interior.

“We boldly positioned each apartment forward so that the windows of major spaces – the bedrooms and living room – make up the facade,” says Rothelowman Principal of National Design, Jonathan Cowle.

Bringing the apartments forward gave the practice the opportunity to respond to the context of the building within the design of the facade. The tower integrates into the nearby forest without disrupting it, allowing for the land to eventually repair itself and grow alongside the building. Viewed from the village green, the tower can be imagined as a collection of nests sat in the boughs of a trunk.

“An important concept, as part of the hierarchy of the building, was our decision to bring deep soil right up to the edge of our building, so we can green all the way up to the edge,” says Cowle.

Rothelowman Principal, Susanne Pini, says that the building’s configuration makes for a captivating visual for onlookers.

“Every time we tucked and folded each apartment, we knew that, to people walking around the building, it would present as a series of tall, fine towers, rather than a monolith,” she says.

“We had a civic duty to the street, to align with neighbouring buildings and form a gateway to the precinct. This acknowledges the role of the building as a contributor to the experience of Midtown MacPark and its inhabitants as part of the community. The focus is on contributing to both the built environment and the social sustainability of place.”

To read more, visit www.architectureanddesign.com.au