Q (Yarra ESD Advisor): Most visitors’ first impression of the development would be in regard to the public space between the individual buildings and its extensive native landscaping. What landscaping initiatives have you included to connect the development with the adjacent bank of the Yarra River? 

A (Matthew Malseed, Hamton): The development’s soft landscaping largely consists of the vegetation on terraces, balconies and facades and the raingardens through the publically accessible landscaped walkway which runs through the site, Acacia Place. While most visitors don’t know about the rain gardens’ function, they appreciate the look and how the native plants blend into the river bank vegetation. We deliberately avoided a basement under the central public space to allow for the growth of large sized trees. Particularly the raingardens are a great contribution to the development’s overall appearance and in hindsight have been fairly easy to implement.   

Further stormwater modelling showed that (a), the development has the ability to harvest more rainwater and (b), that the demand of 13 commercial toilets, 60 connected apartments and landscape irrigation justifies this increase.

Unfortunately the additional piping requirements for the toilets are still quite costly when compared to the future mains water financial savings. So from an economic perspective you would probably still prioritise energy related sustainability initiatives. Having said that, the future market will show, whether this initiative will influence purchasers’ and occupants’ decision making.  
 

Yes, we have significantly diversified the product mix through the inclusion of 3-bedroom apartments following the market demonstrating a strong demand for this owner-occupier product.  Inclusion of the three bedroom apartments has removed internal bedrooms in many instances.  Some purchasers have more recently expressed an aversion to internal bedrooms, however there is no doubt this product, provided its part of an overall offering which is appealing (great design, use of space, facilities, storage, ESD, etc.), has broad acceptance in the marketplace; both sales and leasing results have demonstrated this In an ideal world, we would avoid building apartments with internal bedrooms but at this project they have been fundamental to viability, and have provided the capacity to create a high quality and aesthetically appealing finished product which includes Acacia Place and all the resident and visitor amenity and facilities. 

Our 1-bedroom apartments with internal bedrooms include 2x sliding timber louver doors which have operable louvers providing ventilation, access to light, or privacy where required.  All these objectives are important.

Whilst the development isn’t yet completed, current occupancy of the bicycle stores suggests that about 0.8 bike spaces per apartment would be sufficient. One per apartment would be a good ‘best practice’ target as a general rule we think.

We’ve currently got 3 car share cars, with a 4th to be provided once Sanctuary (the third stage) is completed.  We understand the car share operator (GoGet) is happy with the use of the vehicles at present and as the development is completed and fully occupied, we expect this to improve. 

Our architects came up with the design for external shading devices (fixed horizontal steel battens) that reduce the apartment’s solar heat gain during summer while maintaining the spectacular city views. I also think the shading devices add further interest to the façade.

Yes, we included an air-conditioning system in the café and restaurant tenancies which transfers heat to help reduce running costs of heating the communal pool. This has a dual benefit of lowering costs to the Owners Corporation, but also reducing the running costs of heating/cooling the hospitality tenancies, which we believe is a benefit that tenants/purchasers will find appealing.