Six Degrees Architects has designed a new mixed-use precinct to accommodate Ballarat’s growing population, with residential and commercial buildings planned in convenient proximity to the city centre.
Located at 102–108 Humffray Street in Bakery Hill, the irregular-shaped site covers around 4,200 square metres and has been occupied by a timber merchant for decades.
“Previously, it was a light industrial site, but it is actually quite a historic part of the city,” said Six Degrees director James Legge. “There’s quite a haphazard street network organized around the old diggings, which makes the site interesting. But a lot of it has been bulldozed and taken over by large box stores and carparks.”
The project will involve the regeneration of the area, transforming a carpark and underutilized spaces into a higher density precinct. The development will comprise two separate buildings: an eight-storey residential building to the west and a commercial building to the east, with permeable communal and public space between.
“The city is trying to work out a way to increase its population, residential and commercial, without chewing up farmland on its periphery,” said Legge. “This development is envisioned as the first of a few future developments, providing the opportunity to increase density of the city.”
The mass of the residential building will be “highly articulated” and divided into smaller forms, reducing the urban scale of the development. Its facade will be varied through balconies and changes in material, and planters will be scattered on Juliet balcony windows to add diversity and intrigue.
The commercial building, running along Humffray Street, will also comprise eight storeys, incorporating a series of setbacks and varying window grid articulations to break up the overall mass.
The existing heritage smoke stack is to be retained and integrated as a “marker in an active and landscaped ground plane.”
Image:
Sketch by Simon O’Brien
Six Degrees said it would incorporate its signature “textural and fine grain approach to urban planning and design” to mediate mass and create a congenial living and working environment.
Steering away from the glass box typology, the architect selected a wall and fenestration approach, with red textured concrete referencing the heritage brick facades of the neighbouring buildings. The history of the site will be celebrated, with the existing smoke stack retained and integrated to become a “marker in an active and landscaped ground plane.”
The site currently contains a mix of dilapidated houses and timber storage sheds, with pedestrian access limited by vehicular routes and truck loading bays. Six Degrees proposes to relocate carparking underground.
Six Degrees is targeting a minimum 7-star NatHERS thermal performance rating for the apartments, a 5-star Greenstar and 5-star NABERS rating for the commercial building, and zero fossil fuels will be used in the operation.
Source: Architecture - architectureau
