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Architects: Edition Office
- Year: 2021
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Photographs:Rory Gardiner
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Manufacturers: Phoenix Tapware, Smeg
Text description provided by the architects. Positioned on a peaceful street in the heart of Fitzroy, 231 Napier Street forms eleven exclusive apartments designed by the award-winning Melbourne architecture practice, Edition Office. Surrounded by culture and commerce, this quiet pocket is an understandably coveted spot, bordered by Gertrude, Smith, and Brunswick Streets just north of the city. Reflecting Milieu’s dedication to enhancing neighborhoods through design and Edition Office’s commitment to ambitious architecture, Napier Street has been designed with consideration for its surrounding buildings, marrying contemporary ideals with the history of the site and context.
“We studied the materiality of Fitzroy’s historic buildings, their relief patterns, the composition of windows and doors to the façade, and the rhythm of party walls that line the streetscape,” says Aaron Roberts director at Edition Office. “This research informed the design process from the outset creating a strong connection with the neighboring context.”
Subtle details and materiality amplify the building’s honest character and feel. When encountered from the street, the building appears as a series of singular, raw concrete shells simply and unashamedly stacked, one upon the other. Each apartment is transformed into a vessel that offers a sense of enclosure and protection.
Upon entering the private and secure residence, visitors are greeted by an internal atrium enclosed in a perforated metal surround providing ever-changing light and air into the common spaces. The momentary quality of this entryway ensures each arrival and departure feels different from the last. It also acts as a filtering mechanism, obscuring the connection between public and private spaces. Carefully sleeved within the building’s raw shell is a more tender, pale timber inner skin. This delicate timber boundary embodies luxurious simplicity, amplifying the building’s character and feel. The internal spaces are deliberately paired back, removing internal walls to maximize space, allowing for more free-flowing light and air, strengthening the connection to the outdoors.
Each apartment reflects a commitment to deliver truly liveable, timeless, and considered spaces that are designed and built to last. Key features that enhance the luxurious feel include full-height glazing allowing outside views to reinforce the sense of maximized living space, bespoke and detailed joinery with significant storage, walk-in robes, natural stone benchtops, stained timber flooring, brushed nickel tapware by Phoenix, Smeg appliances, wine fridges, and fireplaces.
Milieu and Edition Office share a belief in refined simplicity and civic responsibility, creating enduring spaces of influence that enhance the neighborhoods in which they stand and Napier Street by Milieu is exemplary of this honest connection.
