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C_220711_N145_print_Matthew Allen

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<h3>Our carefully considered interventions unlock multiple opportunities and deliver the core clinical requirements and needs of this important civic and historic health precinct.</h3>

To serve the rapidly growing population of Sydney Local Health District, the proposed redevelopment of the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital will be the most significant upgrade in the hospital’s 140-year history and feature a new addition, upgraded emergency department, as well as expanded clinical services. The design unlocks multiple opportunities to establish a more cohesive and connected position for RPA within the Camperdown Health, Education and Research Precinct (CHERP), one of the largest and most comprehensive health and education precincts in Greater Sydney.
A new entry improves circulation between the northern arrival plaza and the primary hospital, while a pedestrian-friendly public drop-off is established with patient transport vehicles redirected to the side of the plaza. A two-storey vertical expansion over the existing RPA Building 89 will accommodate a new intensive care unit.
In the East Wing, a new 15-storey building connects to the existing hospital, reflecting the bend of Building 89, presenting a soft curve to the Sydney University Oval, cradling retained trees and opening up views from behind the building.
A public wayfinding network is anchored by a central courtyard which acts as a place of respite as well as an identifiable marker of the centre of the hospital. The existing volume is wrapped in a three-storey screen to create a calm and uplifting environment with light and views filtering into surrounding zones to link public spaces.

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Royal Prince Alfred Hospital

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<h3>Newmarket, the neighbourhood that has begun to transform the former Inglis stables, stitches together past and present through its masterplan, high quality housing, retail, dining and public space.</h3>

The eastern precinct, Newmarket’s first completed stage, celebrates the site’s landscape and built heritage, combining with new buildings and landscape in a simple masterplan defined by new streets and spaces as an extension to Randwick’s public domain.
The centrally located Inglis Park, by Arcadia Landscape Architects, adapts the heritage Sales Ring into a unique playground under the shade of the famous Moreton Bay Fig. Yarraman Avenue, a new street, wraps the park and precinct’s eastern edge to improve public access and offer future connections to Randwick Girls High School. A central pedestrian axis connects the entire site from north to south: from the Barker Street dining precinct, to Inglis Park, past Newmarket House Childcare Centre, to the State Listed Big Stable.
Six new apartment buildings provide a range of housing typologies from council-owned affordable housing through to larger penthouses. Two architects worked in concert developing their complementary designs, with Newmarket Residences by Bates Smart north of the park, and Figtree Pocket by Smart Design Studio to the south.

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Newmarket Residences encompasses 128 apartments and ground floor retail in two 8-storey buildings which frame the precinct’s northern gateway. The buildings’ expression of open precast concrete frames relates to the civic context of Prince of Wales hospital and the adjacent schools whilst accommodating everyday life: shops and cafes below, and apartment balconies and windows above. The sandstone tinted precast concrete is complemented by dark bronze metal framing to balustrades, window frames, sunshading and privacy screens.
Apartment planning is simple and generous, with a focus on natural cross ventilation, framed picture windows and open corner balconies with strong connection to the established tree canopy. The apartment interiors hint at the stables’ history, with materials such as timber framed joinery, brushed nickel tapware and leather joinery handles.
Four residential buildings, containing 165 apartments, compose Figtree Pocket at the south end, designed by Smart Design Studio.

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Newmarket

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<h3>The Newlands will be a vibrant residential and pedestrian-oriented community with a strong focus on the bushland character of Newlands Park, which sits directly across from the site.</h3>

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As the first development in the masterplan to receive approval, The Newlands will set the benchmark for the broader precinct. We have taken inspiration from the Newlands Park frontage and connection to the creek-side corridor walk that leads from the St Leonards Centre down to the Sydney Harbour. It’s leafy in all directions, with bushland character in the rocky landforms, sandstone and tall trees, giving apartments the feel of living in a treehouse.
The architecture is imbedded in its surroundings as it steps down the hillside, and apartments feature corner aspects and balconies that take in views across the treetops, with upper levels benefiting from harbour views. The spacious light-filled garden terraces are integrated into the street with their own private entries. Large courtyards lead to private lawns that overlook the mature trees of Newlands Park.
Interiors are designed to contrast the natural and the polished. The sandstone and tiles of the lobby evoke a serene underground space cut into the hillside. The kitchens and bathrooms of the apartments have strong timber and stone accents, with windows in the larger residences that look directly out from the bath into the dense tree canopies.

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The Newlands

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<h3>Another step in the urbanisation of Sydney Olympic Park’s town centre, Boomerang tower combines retail, office space and above ground parking with a 32-storey residential tower.</h3>

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The project delivers on the future vision for Olympic Boulevard of a 6-8 storey streetwall with slender towers above. Adding 239 apartments, 5 shops, two levels of new workplace, shared outdoor amenity, and above ground parking, the project sits respectfully within SOP’s high quality landscape and public domain—anchored by 425 hectares of designated parkland.
The design approach reimagined the single-podium/twin-tower competition brief by splitting the podium with a diagonal through-site link aligned to the nearby State Sports Centre forecourt. North of the link, commercial and parking uses are combined into a single form, while south of the link, the tower sits above the podium parking and ground floor retail.
The northern podium synthesises the architectural expressions of carpark and office, using glazed lifts on the corner and a similar façade approach to visually supress the parking and give the impression of a 7-storey commercial building. Above the southern podium, the residential tower form elegantly reconciles the alignment of the through-site-link and the eastern boundary, providing 100% of apartments with 2 hours solar access in midwinter and panoramic views of Bicentennial Parklands, Homebush Bay and the Sydney CBD.

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The zigzag podium façade combines alternating panels of terracotta baguettes with aluminium mesh for the carpark and vision glass for the office. Expressed precast concrete spandrels provide impact protection in the carpark and – with the terracotta infill &#8211; deliver a masonry podium inspired by the site’s former history as the NSW State Brickworks.
The tower façade echoes the same elements, with concrete-coloured slab edge covers and brightly coloured vertical fins providing solar protection to the apartment façade, which includes fixed glazing, awning windows, colourback glass and open setback balconies. At the top of the building, the fins extend upward by one level to form an open crown which conceals a penthouse apartment.
Residents enter the tower via a sculptural lobby where the tower form comes to the ground. Most of the residential floors locate bedrooms at the façade line, and living spaces lead out to balconies, which also help shield from excessive sun. Corner apartments have glazed, operable wintergardens in place of balconies to minimise wind impact. Low-rise floors offer 1 and 2-bedroom apartments, while mid and high-rise floors offer a mix of 1, 2 and 3-bedroom apartments.
Green spaces are provided on the roof of both podiums. Above the office space, the northern podium provides a 2,000sqm communal open space. Connected to the tower by a bridge link, the garden includes 2 pavilions, and dense trees, flowers and greenery to break the wind and create an inviting space. The southern podium is planted with low-water, low maintenance species, providing a lush outlook from the residential lift lobbies.

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Boomerang Tower

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<h3>MAC Residences exemplifies how excellent apartment living can be defined, as Sydney positions itself to become a high-density city.</h3>

MAC Residences is the first building to complete in the renewed Ivanhoe Estate, delivering 269 homes and a childcare centre in Macquarie Park. The tower stands at Ivanhoe’s highest point and serves as a gateway to the future <a href="https://www.batessmart.com/projects/midtown-macpark/">Midtown MacPark</a> precinct.
Its calm architecture, efficient floorplan and clever ground level interface sets a high bar for Ivanhoe’s 23 remaining buildings that, once built, will form a new high density mixed-use, mixed-tenure neighbourhood of 3,500 residences.
The characteristics of the site greatly influenced the tower’s architecture. Holding the entrance corner to the new neighbourhood, the site is nearly 25 metres higher than the Estate’s lowest point. Due to this crossfall, the entry road along MAC Residences’ eastern edge drops by nearly 10 metres, delivering a flatter main high street through the rest of the precinct. The tower responds to this fall with a triple level base that visually reads as two storeys from most sides, by stepping in elevation.

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The base of the tower organises the childcare, two residential entries, parking and circulation. Lower ground sits level with the new main street, which will be heavily pedestrianised once the precinct is complete. Here, an arrival plaza fronts the tower to help it better interface with the neighbourhood. Stairs from the plaza lead up to a residential lobby, and a smaller lobby provides access to the childcare. The building’s carpark entry tucks into the lowest point on site.
The childcare occupies the interstitial upper ground level, above the main axis, and below the site’s northern edge. This clever use of space creates shelter for the childcare, away from the busy streets, and allows a large outdoor play area to exist on top of the carpark entry roof.
The tower rises 23 storeys, offering 269 apartments including 23 wheelchair-accessible units. Floorplates are designed as two linear bars with rounded corners. Apartments are planned in tandem with the form so that amenity is maximised. Two full-height creases give the tower vertical articulation and optimise privacy, solar access and natural ventilation. Double storey voids punctuate the elevation at the ends of the corridors. These voids house vertical gardens that stack up the tower’s height, giving residents visual access to green space that’s typically scant in high-rise living.

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MAC Residences

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<h3>The vision for Telopea transforms the 13.4-hectare site in Western Sydney into an integrated, diverse and vibrant precinct, delivering approximately 4,700 dwellings including a mix of market, social and affordable housing.</h3>

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The design celebrates the site’s existing bushland hillside character through streets and building forms built along the contours and arranged to retain the site’s most significant trees. The masterplan repairs and reconnects the fragmented ecosystem using green infrastructure to create a biodiversity corridor between existing wildlife protection areas of Vineyard Creek Reserve and Ponds Creek Reserve.
A stepped sequence of accessible open spaces organised around a new pedestrian oriented civic spine not only connects the station to the creek and celebrates the site’s existing trees, but also improves permeability, ensuring an accessible journey for all and connecting people to transport, retail and public destinations.
The new town centre‘s range of community facilities include a retail precinct featuring supermarkets, food and beverage and speciality retail, as well as a community centre, library, childcare, and a combined church, residential aged care and independent living units.

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Day one amenity is provided in the first stage of development which includes upgrades to Telopea light rail plaza, pedestrian and cycleway upgrades, and a new neighbourhood park.
The design aims to deliver on a range of sustainability measures that promote health and wellbeing to both the residents and the public domain, including 6 Star Green Star Communities, 5 Star Green Star buildings, carbon neutral integrated infrastructure and WELL community certification for the precinct.
The proposed redevelopment is part of the NSW Government Communities Plus program, which seeks to revitalise Telopea by upgrading its current social housing assets, integrating a mix of uses delivered over multiple stages, due for completion by 2040.

Matthew Allen

Director

BPD, MArch, RIBA, RAIA