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<h3>Indi Sydney is a build-to-rent tower located over the southern Gadigal Metro Station entry.</h3>

It interprets its heritage context using contemporary masonry materials; while prioritising liveability and amenity over architectural form.
The small ‘L’ shaped site wraps around the historic Edinburgh Castle Hotel, creating a challenging configuration for a residential building. The entry to Gadigal Metro Station occupies a large portion of the site, leaving a limited footprint for the building core and minimal street frontage for entry and activation.
The Bathurst Street podium steps down to transition between the Edinburgh Castle Hotel and the adjoining building, while integrating the tower into the composition. A large opening on Bathurst Street scaled to the height of the historic Hotel announces the Metro entry.

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The tower is expressed as four slender vertical volumes, each with a different masonry hue. The four volumes form a stepped profile on the skyline as they adjust to the solar access plane. A horizontal slab edge every three storeys references the scale of the surrounding heritage buildings and orders the stepping of the tower volumes. A vertical slot in the tower introduces light and ventilation to the lift lobby and communal corridors.
Three storey masonry verticals use depth to express solidity while providing shading and privacy to residents. Each room has a specific window type to respond to internal amenity and privacy. Fine-scale steel detailing for balustrades and horizontal shades counterpoints the masonry’s prominence.

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The 6-storey podium largely contains mechanical plant for the Metro Station. Above that the tower consists of 30 levels of build-to-rent apartments, stacked between amenity floors at the top and bottom. The podium incorporates a co-working space and resident’s lounge/kitchen on level 2 and a wellness floor on level 6 with a pool located between a series of inverse ‘V’ shaped transfer structures over the Metro entry. The stepped top of the tower has a large outdoor terrace adjoining an indoor lounge and dining area.
Typical residential floors have 8 or 9 apartments per floor, with six naturally ventilated corner apartments created via the offset volumes. Expressed off-form concrete provides an authentic expression of the jump-form core construction while minimising unnecessary linings. Louvres and custom ventilation flaps on the southern façade provide privacy to the adjoining apartments.

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sketch

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Indi Sydney

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<h3>This is an exciting new precinct. It brings together different uses and new architecture with the site’s existing heritage fabric.</h3>
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Our design centres on a large ‘urban room’ that will draw people in. Laneways and arcades connect to this space and wrap two heritage buildings, at the precinct’s corner, so that the heritage architecture can be experienced in the round. Lush landscape, small shopfronts and public art weave these elements together, to create a precinct that’s a lively place.
We’ve designed the three residential towers to read at two scales: the skyline scale, and the human scale. Their varied heights, rooftops and facades give them unique identities on Brisbane&#8217;s skyline.

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We’ve also used the façade geometries and layers to integrate smart features that leverage the climate. These include landscape planters, passive self-shading and generous apartment balconies—elements that allow residents to maximise an indoor/outdoor lifestyle. Interiors capitalise on natural light and cooling breezes; a large number of apartments achieve dual or triple aspect, while shared corridors are naturally ventilated.
Each building is supported by extensive residential amenity, including a rooftop pool for each tower and a gym within the shared podium. Bespoke interior spaces, such as lounges, cinemas and banquet rooms, mean residents won’t need to leave home when they want to work out, relax or entertain.

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Melbourne + Manning

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<h3>The Victoria Cross development will transform North Sydney’s traditional CBD into a vibrant community heart by integrating the new Metro Station with a new office tower, a dining and retail precinct and an interconnected public domain.</h3>

The tower will be a powerful, singular expression—able to be read ‘in the round’ on the city skyline, yet revealing its complexity upon approach. It is composed of a series of 8-12 storey expressed volumes and fine grain of external shading which subtly varies depending on the orientation of each facade
The floorplates have been designed with connectivity and flexibility in mind. The long span of structure maximises visual and physical connectivity across the workspace.
Victoria Cross contains four levels of office space within its podium. These spaces connect to an OSD sky lobby at level 2. The interconnected office and sky lobby create a rich overlap between community, metro customers, podium office employees, and OSD tenants and visitors, knit the building into its social context, and maximise activation of the public domain.
The OSD sky lobby is an expansive space enjoying looking out over tree canopy onto the new Miller Street public domain. We designed it to be active beyond normal business hours and as a space that can flex to many different uses. Accessed from both the main lobby on Berry Street, and the secondary lobby off the laneway, it contains commercial office reception areas, a lobby cafe, and a large lounge area and informal meeting spaces. Adjacent to this space are the lift lobbies serving the tower. External balconies lining the western edge spill out from the sky lobby and create a second level of activation in the public domain.
Back at ground level, five new food and beverage outlets open out to the public domain. They sit between the tower’s main entrance and the Metro entrance, enjoying prime location and acting as activity centres at the tower’s base

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The through site link between Miller and Denison Streets directly connects to the Victoria Cross Metro Station and doubles as a vibrant pedestrian laneway. This neighbourhood scale streetfront—it’s 7.5 metres wide—has been designed for cafes and casual food and drink offerings, as well as a two storey destination restaurant and bar offering. Our intention has been to create a beating new heart for North Sydney which extends the life of the commercial core beyond 6pm Monday through Friday, and into evenings and weekends to create a vibrant, urban centre.
Surrounding Victoria Cross, we have created spaces where people are comfortable to meet, work and socialize – spaces for sharing a coffee or an informal lunch are created under the canopies of trees. The tower anchors the North Sydney CBD Laneways Concept Plan, integrating new public spaces at 1 Denison Street and 100 Mount Street. Extending the MLC lawns and boulevard planting north along Miller Street to Berry Street will create a new series of urban plazas interspersed with new green lawns. The new through site link and Miller Street plaza will complete the vision for a unified public domain in North Sydney.

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The Victoria Cross Station entry is clearly visible at the corner of the Miller Street through site link. From here escalators take passengers directly down to the station concourse level. Escalators take passengers from the Denison Street link down to the concourse level. The link also helps to clarify circulation through to the surrounding streets, increasing pedestrian permeability and connecting into existing bus stations.

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Victoria Cross

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<h3>The Gold Coast is one of the only places in Australia where the rainforest meets the ocean. Surfers Paradise Boulevard celebrates this ecology by referencing both the subtropical landscape and the beach in its design.</h3>

Designed for Andrews Projects, Surfers Paradise Boulevard exemplifies high-density, coastal living in a unique setting where the rainforest meets the sea.
The architecture seeks to be both enduring and subtropical in its character. Its massing is softened by gentle curves as though sculptured by coastal breezes and sea currents.
Twin towers are sculpted, staggered and rotated to maximise natural light, air and views. This move allows most apartments 270-degree views of the ocean and dual aspect living spaces.
Large operable glass walls separate living rooms from balconies, allowing residents to open up their apartments and enjoy their connections to the beach.
The rainforest weaves into the building via its impressive amenity level, which uses diverse and mature plantings to blend together the different amenity zones. The landscape design aims to create a botanical museum showcasing an eclectic range of South East Queensland’s vegetation communities. Residents have access to over 5,500 sqm of wellness amenities.

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South Beach

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<h3>1 Denison is a highly permeable building that promotes visual connectivity and openness — hallmarks of today’s workforce ideals.</h3>

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Located in the centre of North Sydney, immediately adjacent the proposed Victoria Cross Metro Station, our aim was to design a podium that is highly accessible, active and permeable at ground level, with a human scale and materiality. Its warm materials and human scaled spaces balance the tower’s glass and sleek expression.
The podium consists of two primary levels, a ground floor and a raised office level. The ground floor incorporates a pedestrian through-site link that extends the existing link between Little Spring and Walker Streets and connects to the Victoria Cross Metro station. The northern edges of the link are lined with retail, while the southern connects to the tower’s two lobbies.
Denison Street, with its cafes and restaurants, is also to the south beyond the lobby entrances. Tenancies sit under the podium overhang and open onto the laneway, breaking down indoor/outdoor boundaries via operable walls. A terraced mezzanine level above has additional dining areas with planting to add landscape to the groundscape.

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Like <a href="https://www.batessmart.com/projects/victoria-cross/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Victoria Cross</a>, 1 Denison helps anchor the North Sydney Central Laneways Precinct. The tower’s landscape plan prioritises pedestrians and creates a new, active groundplane by allowing pedestrians to cross mid-block through numerous squares. Major path identification helped to pinpoint where greenery, street furniture, art and water features will be most effective. They are all generously incorporated into 1 Denison’s design.
We have created a highly connected and contiguous floorplate, based on a side core typology. The structure is designed to maximise flexibility of the fitout. The workplace for Nine Network takes up 22,000sqm at 1 Denison, with a fitout that reflects the brand’s values &#8211; active and aspirational, progressive and exciting. Bates Smart led the strategy, fitout and design for this workplace, which prioritises open, light-filled project workspaces that radiate from a central hub in order to support the fluidity and speed of the newswroom’s activity.

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1 Denison

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<h3>South Brisbane is known for its entertainment, culture, and arts, yet accommodation options remain limited.</h3>
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A new 15-storey hotel on Merivale Street, developed by 32 Cordelia Pty Ltd and designed by Bates Smart, transforms the area into a place to stay, not just visit. Positioned near Musgrave Park and the Brisbane Convention &amp; Exhibition Centre, the hotel introduces a pedestrian-friendly laneway linking key attractions.
The design integrates subtropical landscaping and a breathable ground floor for a seamless indoor-outdoor experience. Guests can relax at the café, explore the laneway, or access Southbank, museums, and restaurants.
Architecturally, the hotel draws inspiration from Brisbane Tuff, a local volcanic rock, and the Queensland Art Gallery&#8217;s postmodernism, creating a striking rectilinear façade with cascading greenery. The rectilinear façade and articulated massing make for a striking expression. Landscape is also key; it anchors the ground floor and rooftop, and spills over the building’s planters and balconies.

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Hotel rooms span levels 2–11, with suites on level 12. The rooftop features wellness facilities, dining, and a luxe infinity pool with city and river views. The steel-and-glass rooftop restaurant and bar form a new skyline landmark, combining relaxed subtropical design with spectacular ambiance. Anchored by its thoughtful integration of local materials, landscape, and amenities, the hotel enhances South Brisbane’s walkability, leisure, and architectural character.

Mathieu Le Sueur

Director

BArch, RAIA