Three mixed-used buildings each designed by a different architecture firm have been completed as part of the “transformational” Newcastle East End development.
The development is located on the Hunter Street Mall on the eastern side of the CBD. The first three buildings – the Perkins and King building designed by SJB, Fabric House by Durbach Block Jaggers and Washington House by Tonkin Zulaikha Greer (with interiors by Turner) – are among 11 buildings in the urban renewal project, to be delivered over four stages. Aspect Studios is leading the landscape design, creating bew shared green space.
Initially spearheaded by the state government’s Urban Growth NSW development agency, along with co-owner of the land GPT Group, the Newcastle East End project is now being developed by Iris Capital, who bought the site in 2016. It’s being pitched as a catalyst to “bring new life to the neglected centre of Newcastle.” The buildings include retail and hospitality tenancies on the ground levels, with apartments above.
Perkins and King by SJB.
SJB began the process of masterplanning the site in 2013, and were later selected as executive architect in partnership with Durbach Block Jaggers and Tonkin Zulaikha Greer.
The architects worked with Newcastle City Coumcil’s Urban Design Consultative Group throughout 2017 to reconsider the alignment and form of the buildings from the approved masterplan to better respond to the immediate site and surrounding context.
For SJB’s Perkins and King building, the height and massing were shifted to allow for an open public space to be created at the centre of the block. Durbach Block Jaggers’ Fabric House had its building envelope adjusted in a way that allowed the new architecture to better respond to the existing 1930s style brick architecture. And at Washington House by Tonkin Zulaikha Greer the building envelope was rotated 90 degrees so that all apartments gain access to light and views and the built form running east-west along Hunter Street Mall that would have otherwise blocked northern light to the central public space could be reduced.
The firms said the collaborative planning process allowed them to execute design manoeuvres that would have been inhibited by a typical Design Excellence Competition process.
Fabric House by Durbach Block Jaggers.
“To reinvent a city you need to reinvent the processes that bring new buildings to fruition,” they said in a joint statement.
“Newcastle East End sets a wonderful benchmark for how a collective of architects and local councils can work together to achieve development that is characterful, vibrant, viable and sustainable.”
Each of the building responds to the heritage context of the area. SJB’s design for Perkins and King employs green-hued concrete, “structural rhythm,” and “decorative geometries” to knit the new building into its surroundings.
Durbach Block Jaggers’ Fabric House, meanwhile, features a tonal gradient of bricks and curvaceous edges to “honour the brick architecture of the existing building and the iconic heritage buildings in Newcastle’s East End.”
And Tonkin Zulaikha Greer’s Washington House has a ground floor lobby and retail spaces that celebrate “the old-world glamour of Newcastle’s beloved David Jones department store.”
A fourth building being delivered as part of stage one, the QT hotel designed by SJB, is still under construction and is expected to be completed in early 2022. The second stage will comprise the Soul and Lyrique buildings by CKDS Architecture with interiors by Turner.
Source: Architecture - architectureau
