Cox Architecture designs student housing tower in Brisbane

Cox Architecture has designed a 930-bed student housing facility for Brisbane CBD.

To be located at 240 Margaret Street, the project is set to “inject a high-density accommodation offering into this burgeoning precinct of the city,” the architects said in a development application for the project.

The tower will also accommodate a range of common facilities including a gym, a study, a library and a cinema, as well as game and roof-level recreation spaces.

The site will be dedicated to open space and include integrated greening. RPS is the landscape architect for the project.

“The designs put forward will contribute to a new and enhanced public realm that sensitively responds both contextually and environmentally,” the architects said.

The massing of the tower will be broken up into “smaller distinctly expressed elements.”

“This tripartite arrangement consists of two bookends which are expressed similarly, each with a series of projecting horizontal ledges performing a role in moderating the east and west aspects. These faces are also strongly articulated with a pattern of subtly graded coloured sun-blades. These blades take on the ochre, gold, and sand colours of the cliff’s tuff stone and grade in colour from stronger near the street and more subtle as they radiate upward toward the sky, creating movement and dynamism,” the architects said.

The tower will be pinched at the “waist” to reduce the perception of bulk.

“Distinct rebates in the street and rear facades enhance the reading of the building as a collection of smaller tower forms,” the design statement continued.

“240 Margaret Street has been conceived as a positive contributor to the civic, urban and public realms of the city and will sit comfortably in its CBD context. It is intended to be a place where residents will feel connected and part of something greater than themselves, a celebration of its locality and neighbourhood.”