Urbanest, Darling Square

This twin tower project is a premium quality student accommodation campus designed for amenity, connection and urban presence, forging connections between resident students and the city. The north tower is a catered college style of undergraduate accommodation, while the south tower contains self-catered accommodation suited to senior or more independent graduate students.

The two are linked at their lower levels across a ‘verandah’ of communal areas, with the upper levels arranged into a series of neighbourhoods. Each neighbourhood has its own lofty common room, offering a quieter ‘third space’ for socialising or study that’s close to student rooms, but away from the major common areas below. 

Their height makes them not only part of the urban tapestry, but also the city skyline, so to ground the towers in place, their façade treatments embody a story related to their location. In texture and colour, the west façades in ochre and umber shades reference the old brick warehouses of the district, while the cooler east facades echo shades and patterns of shimmering light off the harbour. 

Tower forms are cut to create more building corners for cross-ventilated apartments, attracting a 4 Greenstar rating. Active communal spaces are located on the lower two floors along Darling Drive behind full height glazing and a two-storey colonnade of concrete V columns that supports the residential floors above.

The colonnade echoes giant trusses that once spanned the nearby rail yards, and also extends the urban safe space to within the building footprint — an important urban gesture from this narrow site, bounded by transport corridors. This ‘calming’ strategy is supported with a landscaped pocket park that allows student communal space to spill outside into the neighbourhood.