Avista Stage 3, Durham Street, Glenelg

This mixed-use development consists of basement car parking, ground floor commercial tenancies and a concierge reception point, 3 levels of serviced apartments and 2 levels of retirement apartments.

A community centre is provided at rooftop level for the use of both the new and existing retirees. The project also involved the renovation of an existing building with a noted local heritage listing.

Sited on the boundary of residential and commercial planning zones, the form of the building was carefully designed to respect both the scale and materiality of its immediate surrounds. This was achieved by reflecting the scale of the immediate neighbouring buildings with an expressed masonry podium.

The articulation of the podium reinforced the scale and rhythm of the balcony and the existing verandah of the adjacent heritage building.

Increasing the deeper floor setbacks as the building rises further reduced the apparent height of the new building.

The use of warm materials offering both tactile and visual detail was utilised at the lower levels offering a direct relationship to the heritage building and other neighbouring residential properties.

The interface between the new and the old has been articulated through a negative joint expressed by using darker materials with a ‘cleaner’ fenestration.

The colour/material selections to the upper floors have been chosen as a direct contrast to the podium level architecture to help break down the overall form and to emphasise the bulk of the street level massing.