752 High St Construction Update 3

Now that the Melbourne lockdown has lifted, we could happily set up a chair across the street and watch 752 High St continue to take shape. Though we have missed a few highlights already. The brick cladding has now been installed along with the double glazed windows and doors as well as the terracotta tiles to the apartment balconies. The PV panels have also been installed on the roof along with rest of the services.

*The curved corners to the brickwork and the cantilevered cut outs to the balconies as seen from High Street.*

This project has been a long time in the making for our office. It’s been a great opportunity to delve into the world of mass timber construction and explore the best ways to provide comfortable, efficient and durable multi-residential dwellings.

*A glimpse of what the view will be like from the south facing windows!*

A recent ABC article (we’ll link below), reported that the average Victorian home scores 1.8 stars on the Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme. While the current minimum standard for new homes is set at 6 stars, the apartments at High St score an average of 8 stars. We’re looking forward to the final stages of the project and intend to monitor the internal qualities of the building to look further into how effective the building functions.

*Glimpses into the terracotta clad balconies. Incorporating deep set windows and doors to the apartments reduces the amount of heat that can penetrate into the internal spaces.*

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, we see that as architects working within the building industry, we have a responsibility to push the norm. Inevitably, the outcome we hope for is a living environment that is fundamentally comfortable to live in, cost effective to run and venturing to demand as little as possible of external energy resources. Our team has gained so much through the opportunity to worth with mass timber at 752 High St and are excited to test its capacity in a range of applications in the near future!