The main design driver was to reconcile the need to provide shelter and respite from the inner city urban environment, and at the same time, open up to the fantastic views on offer, almost 270 degrees around the site. We drew lessons from two major landmarks close to the site – the leafy sheltered spaces in Mowbray Park created by the Moreton Bay Fig trees as well as the bricks and verandas from Hanworth House.

Deep slots which carry up through the whole building form the two main resident entrances, but also become sheltered outdoor seating areas for the retail.

Columns create a colonnade, a sheltered outdoor zone for the retail spaces, and a lushly landscaped zone in front of the residential communal areas, providing further amenity and respite from the busy traffic. The columns take on the form of branches, transferring the structure between the apartment grid above to the basement grid below. Metaphorically and literally expressing the form of fig trees.