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In Clifton Hill the development of thirty apartments on the site of a former theatre turned hat factory was an exercise in maximising the development potential for the client. The design was within an existing structure which was built to house a theatre and factories, creating aspects,views and amenities for the future residents and transforming the existing degraded industrial streetscape into residential facades of a scale and character appropriate to the location and the market. While this was done, a building of local interest was re-used to provide residential choices not previously available in this neighbourhood, adding considerable improvement to its character in a denser residential ratio than that of the surrounding streets.

The development has no precedent in the area in terms of scale, type of dwelling or neighbourhood character however it achieves a successful design outcome through innovation and a keen understanding of the local conditions and the complexity of city living.

Typically the industrial project is a building in two parts, the shed with its portal frame structure and the office block. There was no advantage in denying the basic tenets of this building type.However the challenge of this project was to rely on 'the type' and its construction, making a further contribution to its meaning. The portal frame shed has already been reduced to its bear essentials. A challenging strategy was in taking even more away from the structure rather than adding decorative elements to it.

Thus the rectangular plan has large semicircular 'cut outs' which 'bite' into shed building in plan. These become the outdoor spaces providing the scale and comforts necessary

for human habitation in a landscape. They also allow the design to become self-evident by splitting the building into a 'head' and a 'body'. Hence the administration and the manufacturing functions can still be identified.

This project creates a way of maintaining the large-scale qualities of the industrial landscape and works with these to articulate the building environment in response to both pedestrian and vehicular considerations.

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