What makes an apartment feel like a home rather than simply a collection of rooms? At 49 Walsh Street in Melbourne‘s South Yarra, a recent conversation between Neometro director Lochlan Sinclair and MORQ founding partner Andrea Quagliola explored how architecture can shape the experience of everyday life.
Moderated by design editor Alice Blackwood, the discussion took place within the development itself, offering an opportunity to consider the ideas behind the collaboration. Designed by MORQ for Neometro, 49 Walsh Street marks the architecture practice’s first Australian multi-residential project, following its appointment through an international design competition.
For Quagliola, whose practice was founded in Rome and now operates from Rome and Perth, the relationship between architecture, interiors and landscape is fundamental.
“I’ve always been interested in landscape and interiors, and architecture is what brings them together,” he explained.
His approach draws partly on childhood experiences of apartment living in Rome, where greenery was an important part of the domestic environment. At 49 Walsh Street, the nearby Royal Botanic Gardens provide a different but equally significant landscape context.
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The project also sits within South Yarra’s Domain Precinct, an area with a history of contemporary architectural experimentation alongside established heritage buildings.
“There’s an incredible legacy of commissioning progressive architecture in South Yarra,” said Sinclair. “We felt a strong commitment to continuing that tradition.”
The conversation turned to the changing meaning of luxury in residential design. Rather than focusing on expensive finishes or grand gestures, both speakers emphasised the quality of spatial experience.
“Luxury is quality space, quality execution, quality construction, quality design consideration,” Sinclair said. “It’s really the sum of all those parts.”
For Quagliola, luxury is equally connected to the way architecture supports daily life. “Luxury is about the experience and the lifestyle that it enables,” he said.
This thinking is most evident in the building’s circulation spaces, where corridors have been treated as more than functional connections between apartments. Changes in light, carefully framed views and varying spatial proportions create a sequence of experiences throughout the building.
“The word corridor doesn’t really do them justice,” Sinclair observed, referring to the interplay of long and short vistas, reflected light and the connections between spaces.
Another recurring theme was longevity. Neometro’s longstanding philosophy of designing buildings that “wear in, not out” informed the discussion, with Sinclair emphasising the importance of maintaining architectural quality well beyond completion.
“We want to be as proud of our buildings in 10, 20, 30 years as we are when we finish them,” he said.
Landscape is also expected to play an increasingly important role as the building matures. Planting will gradually establish itself around the architecture, changing the relationship between the apartments, their gardens and the surrounding streetscape.
Quagliola pointed to a ground-floor apartment as a particularly successful example, where the garden extends the living environment and draws natural light into the kitchen, dining and living spaces.
“It feels very peaceful,” he said. “You feel protected, and you feel drawn outside.”
Ultimately, the discussion at 49 Walsh Street highlighted an approach to apartment design that looks beyond floor plans and finishes. Through considered circulation, meaningful connections to landscape and an emphasis on enduring quality, the project raises broader questions about how multi-residential architecture can contribute to a richer experience of home.
Neometro
neometro.com.au
MORQ
morq.it
Photography
Michael Pham
