The project occupies a prominent position on the east corner of Earle and Churton streets, in Parnell, Auckland, overlooking Judges Bay and the Hauraki Gulf to the north and east. The building consists of 18 units in a mix of 2, 3 and 4 bedroom apartments over 6 levels. Imagined as a bold, contemporary building that confidently occupies the sloping site. The upper three levels are cantilevered above the ground, creating a beautiful profile with a sophisticated shape that enables view shafts from the street through to the harbor beyond.
To counter the assertiveness of the building's silhouette, the building's facade is encased in Italian-made glass bricks. The glass bricks have a metallic lined inner rim that produces a silver optical effect which causes light to reflect and bounce around within the bricks. Aluminum frames are visible through the midway band of each floor. The fourth floor is made up of 800mm thick post tension slab and cantilevers at both ends of the building. The glass brick veil aids us in masking some of the hard work the structure is doing behind the elevation.
The idea is not to highlight or play up the structure but make it feel as elegant and effortless as possible – playing on the subtleties between how something performs and how it appears. The desire to create some tension between the heavy masonry structure and the sense of permanence this presents and the light ephemeral nature of the veil. The tension between the playful weightlessness of the glass and the strength of the building's concrete roots conspires to create something original. From the street, abstract flashes of color and movement will be glimpsed through the glass.
And at night, the lights of the apartments illuminate it from within.