The apartment building at 118 Bealey Avenue represents an opportunity to be part of the Christchurch rebuild and to help reinforce this important and historically significant Avenue, allied with helping to re-populate an area on the periphery of the Central city which is within walking distance of many of Christchurch’s attractions.
The nature of this deep and relatively narrow site along with commercial requirements has driven the design of the building footprint. A considered balance of studio, one, two and three bedroom apartments over the three levels is proposed. An expressive form, the design engages with Bealey Ave in a literal manner.
Thoughtful consideration of the site context has influenced the building form to create a strong roof line reinforcing the street ‘edge’. East and West elevations are broken down into a human scale with trees and plantings located to reduce the visual impact to neighboring properties. The East and West (long) facades offer a modulated and ‘rhythmic’ response where recessed balconies help modulate solid to void and the North and West Facades become the ‘book-ends’ to the built form.
Access onto the site utilizes the existing vehicular crossing from Bealey Avenue. Car parking will be less dominant than similar developments as cars will be located at grade within the under-croft of the apartments above. Visual surveillance is offered by the configuration of the Northern apartments at first and second floors. A simple un-cluttered public entrance off Bealey Ave helps to reinforce this aspect.
Integrated energy efficiency is a key design objective. Design focus on structural resilience and low damage finishes are fundamental to the design and material selection which include: Standing seam metal roofing and cladding, quality European flexible insulating render system, vertical cedar board cladding. Ground plane material selections will include asphalt driveways, exposed aggregate concrete pathways and recycled rubber wheel stops.