Elenberg Fraser continues to strengthen its presence in the Brisbane property market, with the industry giant now juggling multiple projects in what their calling “the new world city”.
Specifically, Elenberg Fraser (EF) is making a strong mark in Fortitude Valley, where they have over $700 million worth of projects in the pipeline. The latest is a multi-residential building for Wickham Street and it follows their now partly completed introduction to the Brisbane market, a $600 million, three-tower development called FV at the nearby Brunswick Street.
Like FV and a lot of their Melbourne projects, EF’s new residential building at Wickham has been put through the rounds of parametric modelling and developed into a curvaceous form that supposedly responds to site context as well as wind and sun protection requirements.
It’s called Night Edge and it’s a 17-storey residential building with ground floor retail and 272 units above. From the renders, the most prominent feature of Night Edge is its exterior wall makeup which transitions from a four-storey podium of rich black travertine stone slab edges to a smooth, scalloped skin and lightly pinched tower façade.
Black Travertine planter boxes on the podium contrast with the metallic champagne mirror finished steel of the tower and are draped by subtropical foliage.
The building curves and concaves for light and wind protection
But it’s not all for looks. In their Development Application with the Brisbane City Council, EF explain in detail how the varied material palette and form of each building section responds to the different tasks at hand.
For example, a significant portion of the building is located in the ‘Special Entertainment Precinct Buffer Zone A’, according to the Fortitude Valley Neighbourhood Plan, which stipulates that bedrooms and living rooms must be located, designed and constructed to protect occupants from existing or future amplified music noise that may arise from premises outside the building
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In Zone A the facade is required to achieve a minimum reduction in sound pressure level between the exterior of the building and the bedroom or living room of LLEQ,T 25DB at 63 HZ, in Zone B its LLEQ,T 20DB at 63 HZ.
EF addressed this by specifying winter gardens on apartment verandas and using acoustic double or triple glazing with large (400mm) air gaps for apartment bedroom windows that were located in Zone A. For those located in Zone B, the air gap was reduced and winter garden rooms replaced by open verandas with glazed balustrades clad in perforated mesh.
Similarly, the building massing was shaped by the solar and wind influences on the site. EF also employed mesh cladding with controlled transparency, ceramic frit glazing and shading devices to control solar heat gain.
“For those who don’t realise, there are other cities in Australia besides Melbourne and Sydney – we’re about to make our mark on Brisbane, the new world city, with a set of three new residential buildings that will redefine luxury.” – Elenberg Fraser
EF says the building has been designed 100 per cent with performance in mind which included climatological evaluations across four main elements: acoustics, solar, wind and view.
They say this represents an important shift from traditional architecture to technical, which optimises how the building operates under pressure. Along with their other Brisbane proposals, Night Edge demonstrates that EF are looking to lead that shift in the Queensland capital.
The building has been approved by the Brisbane City Council, subject to conditions.
Images: courtesy of Elenberg Fraser
