Trio by Frasers Property Australia
Trio is a big, bold, brave development of 397 apartments, completing the well-established City Quarter precinct in the eclectic Inner West of Sydney. Designed by Fender Katsalidis Architects, Trio features a richly articulated 'collage' façade, concealing and defining highly functional loggias.
The challenge for the design team was to create a dynamic building with a daily changing 'face' at a grand scale.
This has been achieved using a finely detailed, operable, facade louvre system combined with a variety of cladding materials and concrete forms to create an exercise in large scale urban graphics. The richly detailed facade constantly and subtly shifts as screens and louvres are opened and closed from within the apartments.
Trio consists of three interlinking residential towers containing 397 apartments, on an elevated sloping site, featuring a rare 50m lap pool and gym set within a lush landscape.
A 33m 'living wall', created by French artist and botanist Patrick Blanc, adds texture and organic life to the façade, and rooftop gardens extend the surprising lushness of Trio within this highly urbanised context.
The inclusion of a ‘loggia’ for all apartments was a key concept. These balconies edged with louvered screens can be adjusted to filter light or pulled back to enjoy the sun and expansive views across Sydney. The loggias extend seamlessly from the living areas and bedrooms and provide a wonderfully flexible bonus living space - a defining point of difference for the sales team.
The unique facade colours and finishes were a deliberate exercise in avoiding the standard combination of colours and finishes prevalent in the area. In particular, with the featured twin blue colours, a unique set of colours were ‘fingerprinted’ from classic car marquees. The light blue was developed for Maserati and the dark blue for Land Rover.
Judges Comments
Trio is a ‘trio’ of connecting buildings, each with its own identity, accommodating 397 apartments and is the final stage of the City Quarter. It is the highest density and tallest component of City Quarter and brings volume and variation of housing stock.
Trio features a richly articulated ‘collage’ façade of louvers, bright colours and a variety of materials, concealing and defining highly functional loggias.
Land scaping is of a high order with the main feature being a north facing 33m tall ‘living wall’. The wall is now established and does much to soften and articulate the façade, adding a complementary organic element to the raw concrete and brilliant blues of the exterior.
Trio adds its communal facilities to those already existing on the site to greatly enhance the ‘village green’ community heart.