Cox Architecture’s competition-winning design for an office tower at 326-328 Botany Road, Alexandria has been submitted to council for planning approval.
The brief called for a building that would contribute to the post-industrial transformation of the Green Square urban renewal area, knitting into the urban fabric of the surrounding area with a fine-grain response.
With landscape architecture by McGregor Coxall and Indigenous engagement consultation by The Fulcrum Agency, the proposal includes a meaningful landscape design and references pre-colonization movement patterns.
326-328 Botany Road, Alexandria by Cox Architecture, sectional perspective.
An east-west laneway running through the site follows the historical path that crossed “the wind-swept sandy soil from Botany Bay to Botany Road.”
Between the noisy streets of Botany Road and O’Riordan Street, will be “The Lee,” an area of respite with deep soil zone for large tree canopies that provides shelter from prevailing winds.
For the building itself, the architects have drawn on the prevalent use of brick in Alexandria’s twentieth century industrial buildings. Each of the building’s facades will be formed of brick “in the most traditional manner…without the need of excessive sub frames.”
The facade addressing Botany Road will have a strong, gridded expression, adding a quiet dignity to the rapidly changing streetscape.
The western façade, an internal facade set back from O’Riordan Street, will be more utilitarian, with a splayed aluminium blade façade system keeping the western sun out in the afternoon while maintaining daylight access. To the south, the facade is more restrained, responding to a future affordable housing development south of the site, but will still be defined by the use of brick and glass reinforced concrete spandrels to maintain a consistent material expression.
The development application for the $44 million project will be o public exhibit until 13 August.
Source: Architecture - architectureau
