SARAH NAJM: COOGEE APARTMENTS

BRIEF
Multi-residential and Commercial building:

- Underground(Beach Street access) : Jazz Cellar
- Ground(Beach Street access): Cafe
- Ground(Arcadia Street access): Parking
- Ground(Arcadia Street access): 2 x 2 bedroom apartment, 1 x 2 storey 2 bedroom apartment
- Level 1: 1 x 2 storey 2 bedroom apartment, 2 x Studio apartment (including 1 with disabled access)
- Level 2: 1 x Studio apartment both connected and separately accessible to the 2 storey 2 bedroom apartment below.

PRECEDENT STUDIES

CONCEPTUAL INTENT
Concepts of public and private, outdoor and indoor realms come to the forefront of this mixed use building . The parking acts as a buffer separating the public access to the site via Beach Street and the residential access on Arcadia Street.

The Residential apartments deal with aspects of intimacy gradients and a tapestry of flexible living catering for a variety of prospect residents and promotes outdoor to indoor variation and control. The commercial spaces focus on the experience. The Cafe is a fish and chip take-away by day and a vivid upper market dining by night, while the Jazz cellar as a wine bar allows an immersion into a complete sensory experience.

The form of the building picks up a commonality of the surrounding architecture which is an elaboration of openings through framing. Here the horizontal slabs sandwich the vertical planes and erode into the site following the slope in which it sits. The sandstone mirrors its use in the surrounding corner blocks continuing to meandering around the building. It also acknowledges the heritage nature of the site as it is time conscious.

Context becomes the opportunity for a layering of architectural language that aims to provide a lifestyle coherent to the present, past and future life of Coogee.