Slate House: Architecture and sustainability in Brighton
When completed last year, the Brighton apartment development Slate House became Brighton’s first fossil-fuel-free multi-residential apartment building.
Developer Lucent engaged Austin Maynard Architects to design the three-level development of just 14 apartments, with the project team, led by Andrew Maynard, Mark Austin, Mark Stranan, focusing on aesthetics, context and sustainability.
Panos Miltiadou, Managing Director of Lucent, said they chose Austin Maynard Architects due to their varying design.
"All the design concepts we saw in the early stages came back the same, except Austin Maynard Architects who came back with a pitched roof," Miltiadou said.
"Placed in the context of the street, and specifically the heritage home next door, it resonated with us. The monolithic look is popular in Brighton but we knew that market was very well looked after. What didn’t exist was an apartment complex that felt like an architecturally designed home."
Local downsizers have made up a majority of buyers in the 8.2 star, NatHERS rated building on Bleazby Avenue.
"It’s frequently assumed that sustainability comes with a certain roughshod aesthetic - exposed services, rough and raw finishes, but, as our project Garden House testifies, it can be wonderfully luxurious," Miltiadou added.
"Slate House is a high-end residential apartment building with interiors that are suitably sophisticated and refined."
The affluent and distinctive Melbourne suburb, famous for its brightly-coloured bathing boxes, is home to mostly larger houses of either contemporary modern builds, Victorian villas or Edwardian homesteads. New apartment buildings typically take on a monolithic approach, with off-white concrete structures favoured in lieu of the heritage that has made the suburb what it is.
The architects at Austin Maynard said in designing Slate House, the 'where' was paramount.
"Recognising and appreciating the suburb’s long-standing and prevailing character led to a building that sits quietly within its context; sensitive to the size and scale of houses in the area, and to its direct neighbour Kardinia House, a heritage protected home of historic significance," they said.
Slate House is one apartment building arranged into three seperate blocks, connected by common entry walkways. Situated on a T-shape block, allowing for two frontages, each of the buildings exhibit a different identity.
"The concept of dividing the larger form into three seperate elements ensure greater efficiency and resulted in light filled corridors with only three front doors on each level."
"The main entrance on Bleazby Avenue is pedestrian, befitting of the quiet and leafy cul-de-sac. The Male Street frontage, a busier and wider vehicle thoroughfare, incorporates the entry to basement parking, but has the appearance of a much more private residence, relative in scale to the larger homes along the street."
The former Primitive Methodist Church (now converted into apartments), along with other churches and school buildings in the area (with similar pitched roofs) together with the Brighton beach boxes, were all important influences in the design of Slate House.
"We looked to architecture that spoke of scale, texture and character to inform the design. We aimed for the building to appear domestic, small and loveable. The intention was a synthesis of the prevailing heritage character and domestic context, to show there was an alternative to the overbearing and clinical modernist box."