Zaha Hadid Architects will mix (a little) old with (a lot of) new for an upcoming development in Australia. The Grace on Coronation project will see three towers with a contemporary design that tapers at the bottom coexist with a Heritage-listed 1860s house.
Hadid herself is no stranger to striking contemporary forms, from the box-shaped City of Dreams hotel to the plunging curves of the Heydar Aliyev Center in Azerbaijan, which won the London Design Museum's Design of the Year award.
The curved lines characteristic of Hadid's work are also present in the Grace on Coronation development, albeit subtly. Looking something like giant whisky bottles planted upside down in the riverbank, the design of the towers aims to maximize useable outdoor space.
"The design tapers each structure to minimize their footprint and open the riverfront to the public, creating a vibrant civic space for Toowong within a new riverside park," explains Hadid in a press release.
In total, the development to be built on the waterfront in Toowong, Queesnland, will include 7,300 sq m (78,580 sq ft) of landscaped public parklands. Sunland Group, the project developer, tells Gizmag that this accounts for almost half of the site and will, open up this beautiful part of the riverfront to the community for the first time in more than 150 years.
"Our vision is to create a vibrant urban village which sensitively activates its urban and riverfront context through compelling architecture and landscape design," says Sunland managing director Sahba Abedian. "Importantly, it is a vision that opens up the site to the broader community through the creation of expansive public parklands, a riverside viewing platform and the transformation of Middenbury into a meaningful public space."
Middenbury is an example of an 1860s Queensland residence constructed from masonry. The house provides an example of how prosperous Brisbane citizens lived at the time and of the early development of the city's outer suburbs. The house will form part of the parkland precinct.
Grace on Coronation will occupy 130 m (430 ft) of the riverfront and incorporate 486 apartments, eight riverfront villas and 635 car parking spaces. The towers themselves will feature a multi-layer facade with patterned curtain wall glazing. Construction began in June.
Source: Sunland Group, Zaha Hadid Architects