The aim of Urban Harbour is to create a vibrant, active and diverse commercial, residential and community precinct.

The site tapers along a stretch of train line, bounded by embankments, weeds, service lanes, car park entries, uninspiring and unharmonuous design. Flanked by a sun filled park and the busy St Leonards train station at one end, the opposite end, a serene natural pocket of Talus Reserve is unused. The spine of large residential and commercial buildings at the end of an urban grid is abruptly cut by the train line. The site is a dry oasis amid clamouring, braking and accelerating trains, recorded announcements of arrivals and departures, the movement of people, trains and vehicles to and from the station and its surrounding office buildings by day and at night fall.

Urban Harbour has a two-storey commercial podium with two multi-storey commercial buildings to the busy southern end of the site and a multi-storey residential building to the quieter northern end. A large central square is a public space for social and commercial interaction and art, elevated from the train line to capture sunlight and breeze. This area views treescapes above buildings towards the local landmark Naremburn church spire. Extending from the square is a community and gallery building, a platform floating out into the tree canopy. A series of pedestrian flows are woven through the site and link to the surrounding open spaces, the train station Chandos Street and Herbert Street.

Proposition 2065 is a National Architecture Competition for a site adjacent the railway station in St.Leonards, NSW. The intent of the competition is to develop architectural concepts that respond creatively to the objectives of the Willoughby Council draft Local Environment Plan 2009 and that also serve as exemplars for mixed-use development in other activity centres across Australia. Innovative and pragmatic development scenarios, providing new models of urban design for future consideration by private sector developers.

A+ Architecture which speaks for Itself. Innovative. Inspiring. Progressive.

The Australian Institute of Architects’ premium A+ membership represents practices that embody these qualities. Created to promote unrivaled excellence and best-practice standards, the A+ brand represents the pinnacle of quality architectural practices in Australia. Australian Institute of Architects.

As an A+ Practice our firm is committed to high quality architecture, ongoing education for our architectural team and have greater access to a variety of professional practice resources.

These projects are part of the NSW Government and Australian Government Nation Building stimulus package rollout of 9000 new social housing dwellings to be constructed by June 2011. The projects redevelop sites generally containing existing substandard social housing with higher quality, denser and architecturally considered housing.

These projects have involved taking an initial design by HNSW and Scott Carver and developing the projects within a tight construction programme and to meet strict design criteria, including disabled access requirements.

MCHP Architects congratulate Joel Fitzgerald, who is now in his fifth year with our practice, on his excellent final year Masters of Architecture project.

The projects design presents a series of spaces defined by striking linear walls, projecting through and from the earth towards the ocean’s horizon, seemingly expressing life’s journey and an infinite future, while also capturing the tranquility and soulful reflective qualities of the site.

The building form and materials express the earth, texture, water and open to lagoon and ocean vistas. It would seem those attending the chapel are guided by the building, rather than overwhelmed or controlled, allowing them the space for their own contemplation, reflection and connection with nature, life and death.

The scheme has been part of the AV exhibition at Newcastle University and Paddington Town Hall.

“…the walls of the complex are a subtle, sensitive representation of life where patterns of domestic wallpaper cast into the walls remind us of how we may live our habitual lives in the suburbs. At the same time, the walls will eternally house the memory of the imprint, residual of the original formwork. From within the spaces, natural light is directed to cast over the surface of the walls, projecting shadows to characterise the passing of time and life.” Joel Fitzgerald

Innovations

MCHP Architects and our client see design flexibility and building longevity as an important issue for sustainability of buildings. This project has been created as a four bedroom house, for a family of two adults and two teenage children, set up as two modules. This concept also allowed for half of the house to be easily adjusted and rented out when the children moved out, while the parents remained in their half of the house. This would provide an income stream allowing the owners to remain in the locality they wish to live, while having financial and lifestyle sustainability. It would also allow the potential of one of the children to temporarily move back in with a young family while becoming financially secure to purchase their own house, or potentially a grandparent to move in.

All living areas and two bedrooms have direct northern exposure, while the other two bedrooms also have northern exposure when their large sliding door is open. Cross ventilation is created throughout the house. The various areas of the house can be closed off, should localized heating be required when there is an extreme cold. The front entry, facing south, has an airlock arrangement to also assist with minimizing heat loss. To minimize heat loss through windows, double glazing has been utilized and seals are provided at doors and windows. The house has been designed to consider draped curtains at the planning stage rather than a design afterthought. Thermal mass is provided with the concrete slab absorbing the warmth of the winter sun and radiating it into the house at night. Insulation will be installed throughout with R 3.5 roof insulation and R 2.0 wall insulation.

The building design including window locations and fixed eaves locations have been carefully designed to allow winter sun and control summer sun. The pergola over the terrace provides weather protection and solar control.

The building incorporates a 2kW photovoltaic system and solar hot water heating. Energy efficient light fittings, LEDs and compact fluorescent lights, shall be installed. Appliances have been chosen for maximum energy efficiency. Rain water storage shall be used for toilets, washing machine, gardens and car washing and high water efficiency fixtures have been selected. Clothes drying areas positioned discreetly to encourage outdoor drying.

Low embodied energy of materials has been considered with aluminium used only in the vergola pergola system and steelwork kept to the roof sheeting, gutters, downpipes and the rain water tanks. The health of the building occupants has been carefully considered through the building design, flexibility, ease of access and building use, the interaction of inside and outside, passive solar design and easily cleaned materials and finishes.

Affordability

We wanted to produce a house which is affordable to build and maintain. This was done using simple construction, building form and spans, efficient planning, building to standardized sizes and lightweight yet durable and low maintenance claddings and finishes.

Utilising government grants for environmental initiatives helped to achieve long term energy savings at a reduced cost. Ongoing cost savings come from solar hot water heating, no air conditioning, use of rain water storage, water saving fixtures, energy efficient appliances and lighting and educating the owner on using the house effectively.

The ability of this project to be adapted to into two separate living units provides a potential future income source and the flexibility of its design has an important impact on the financial sustainability of this building.

Lightweight Materials Used

Wall Cladding – James Hardie Scyon Matrix & HardiPanel.
Roof – Colorbond roof sheeting and guttering.
Structure – Plantation pine timber framing.
Front Fencing, Feature Walls and Screens – Futurewood “Newtech Enviroslat” a low maintenance slat material consisting of a mix of recycled plastics and reconstituted timber offcuts.

Material Rationale

Cladding – James Hardie Scyon Matrix and HardiPanel have been selected for their appearance, low maintenance, long lifespan and the inert nature of the product which does not warp or suffer damage in the environment.
Lightweight Structure – this was selected for affordability, speed of construction, less trades on site, less embodied energy and that it does not lose the floor space of the thicker brick cavity walls. The frames and spans have been designed to keep the structure cost effective and not require steel framing.
Floor – a concrete slab has been used throughout, with a polished finish used for the living and bedroom areas.
Roof – the light coloured, Colorbond roof and guttering has been selected for its appearance, durability, low maintenance and light weight.

Project Team

David Cahill , Hubert Sawicki, Bashodha Rai

It was a great afternoon at the Bangara Mezzanine enjoying a glass of red amongst the architectural works and relaxing listening to poetry and Chris Smith’s presentation, a journey of philosophy, poetry and architecture.

The event, a creation of Mascara Poetry and MCHP Architects, associated eight award winning poets and three exciting architectural firms presenting their works.

The Student Housing project by Silvester Fuller explored densely housing students in a busy city context with the building facade expressing the interaction between student living pods and the outside environment. This association of inner city living tied with the work of Julie Chevalier the airport curfew begins at 06.00.

The Illuminated Ribbon facade of Innovarchi expressed a poetry of form and light developed through architectural and scientific analysis. The beauty of the work weaved with Margaret Bradstock’s poem the white place.

Welsh + Major Architects presented the work of Mario Licon Cabrera Casa Efimera through an expression of materiality with images of their terrace house project in Redfern. They also created an intricate kirigami expressing elements of the timber windows of the old wharf encompassing the Bangarra Mezzanine space and the windows of the Blues Point Tower which dominates the skyline from the mezzanine windows.

An array of inspired and captivating poetic works on architecture and space were performed by Elizabeth Hodgson, Pam Brown, Peter Boyle, Andy Quan and David Musgrave.

A review of Metaphors of Space

MCHP Architects are proud to have collaborated with Mascara Poetry www.mascarapoetry.com to create “Metaphors of Space” to be exhibited at the Sydney Writers’ Festival. This event has brought together two creative art forms into one event.

Works of some exciting architectural practices will be presented and poetry relating to architecture, space and the city written and performed by award winning Australian Poets. It has attracted great interest in both architectural and literary circles.

The event is supported by the City of Sydney.

Link to Sydney Writers’ Festival Event Details.