George Street in East Fremantle is one of metropolitans Perth’s most enjoyable suburban high streets with buildings from a variety of eras that often share a consistency across setbacks, character materials, and awnings.
Architects MJA Studio was commissioned to design a new apartment project and has delivered a responsible and worthy addition to the street.
Through a process of surveying the streetscape, the MJA Studio design team observed the typical widths of individual shopfronts and buildings ranging from 6 to 10m of frontage to George Street.
The amalgamated site for this project had a frontage of 20.7m so without due care and consideration of the proportions of the new apartment building; it could easily overwhelm the streetscape and interrupt its pleasing rhythm.
To respond to this concern, the MJA Studio design team split the built form into two contrasting portions of 10.3m in width.
This created the appearance of two buildings sharing datums that tie into their adjacent neighbours.
The strength of this device is heightened by the sharp contrast between solidity and transparency, patterning, and colour.
Masonry face brickwork is the principal external material for the Western form.
It represents a celebration of the craftsmanship and coursing opportunities of the common brick.
The union of the masonry elements combines multiple patterns, a language that subtly transitions in both horizontal and vertical directions.
In the vertical, a standard stretcher bond meets a two-course stacked Flemish Bond and then transitions back to the stretcher bond.
In the horizontal direction the Flemish Bond transitions to a pixelated Brise Soleil patterning over internal windows.
The double stacking of bricks is scaled to the expanse of the facade this pattern covers.
The brickwork form is bookended at its edges with subtle projections and small reveals that emphasize its mass.
Coursed transitions and terminations share an alignment with the transparent elements of the Eastern form which is predominantly charcoal and glass.
The shared element that overlaps these two forms is the balustrade.
The MJA Studio design team deployed a raw galvanized grid mesh here.
Its transparency varies for the viewer depending on whether they are a pedestrian or homeowner.
The absence of picture framing and careful placement of connections to the base reinforces the subtle and bare form.
Whilst brick remains as an integral part of the building’s external fabric, it is also interwoven into the interior design.
Where the building’s built form is resolved to appear as two contrasting characters, the interiors are where these contrasts intersect and become one language.
The apartment interiors are a reflection of the industrial and raw materials used externally and are designed to blend seamlessly.
The interior palette includes exposed brick walls, black steel, concrete, and textural wood accents.
The outcome is a stripped-down, edgy, and refined aesthetic.
Black steel is intertwined throughout the building.
It’s found in staircases, balustrading, and bespoke furniture too.
The apartments have been designed to allow maximum access to natural light and cross ventilation within a constrained site.
Flexible open planned living areas are evident in all eight apartments with the operability of glazing prioritized.
The project has enjoyed an enthusiastic market response.
Project Details
Project Size – 1,527 m2
Project Budget – $3,600,000
Completion Date – 2021
Building Levels – 3
Project Team
Architecture
MJA Studio
MJA is a dynamic and nimble design practice that aims to create happy and healthy buildings that drive positive change in the built environment, exceed the expectations of their clients, and provide tangible community benefits.
The firm operates from Subiaco in Perth and Fitzroy in Melbourne.
Their project team included Jimmy Thompson, Megan Cordin, Adam Aberle, and Mark Ciesielski.
Photography
Dion Robeson
Dion is an architectural, interior, and commercial fit-out photographer based in Perth, Western Australia.
Photo Gallery
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Design © 2022 MJA Studio. All Rights Reserved.| Images © 2022 Dion Robeson. All Rights Reserved.
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