With a nod to the past and a design concept for the future, 151 Toorak Road by Bird de la Coeur Architects (BdlC) is both at home among its heritage neighbours in South Yarra, Melbourne and singular in its form. As a new build, six-storey office building, 151 Toorak Road offers a ground floor restaurant with commercial premises above and is positioned on a restricted sloping corner site. However, this building has sustainability at its core through its materiality and design and adaptability that is built in.

At the core of the design of 151 Toorak Road are the ideas of health and wellness, lower running costs and greater comfort for occupants. However, the most important design element is the flexibility of the building. At the beginning of the design process the client was unsure of the exact purpose of the building and so, Neil de la Coeur, director BdlC and lead on the project with his team, created a concept that could be a commercial premise, as it is at the moment, or become apartments. This is architecture that looks to the future but also provides the client with the opportunity to adaptively reuse. Smart thinking in our ever-changing world.

As de la Coeur remarks, “the design evolved through discussions with the client. It started off as an envelope study and then as a residential building and then, through COVID, it became a commercial building with the potential for residential. So then, the discussion with the client became about flexibility and setting a floor-tto-floor heights so that it could adapt to either quite comfortably. It was a design and brief formulation process that evolved with our client.”

151 Toorak Road sits opposite the South Yarra Post Office, designed by Public Works Department Architect, Alexander J. McDonald, in 1892. It is one of a rare group of buildings that epitomises the late nineteenth century movement to evolve an Australian style in architecture by combining Australian and Art Nouveau decorative motifs with American Romanesque and Scottish baronial forms. de la Coeur was inspired by the three-storey red brick asymmetrical composition of the Post Office and has re-imagined some of the stylistic ideas for his project in 2024.

The primary motif of 151 Toorak Road is a striking patterned Flexbrick veil or brise soleil that becomes a second skin facade over the traditional glass curtain wall. This screens the building from the western sun and aids in passive climate control. The veil is set inside a series of deep frames that further control heat gain and the colour and pattern responds to the building’s mass, town planning controls and neighbourhood context.

A series of colour changes or breaks in the facade reflect the variety of surrounding streetscapes – terracotta of bricks at ground level and, moving up the structure, the grey of the surrounding slate roofs. This creates interest through colour, while the pattern frames and curates the inside views to the outside landscape.

The brise soleil has been used not only as a decorative addition but to create optimum comfort for those within the building as it drastically reduces glare and the internal temperature. Detailed studies were undertaken to ensure interior comfort was maintained, while reducing running costs and reliance on mechanical cooling.

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“The Flexbricks really work as a curtain wall to provide westerly sun protection and then provide controlled views out to landmarks in the hinterland. The materials were another key to the facade of the building. We  wanted to use materials that would give the building a durable, maintenance free long life. The Flexbrick and stainless-steel rods, the shrouds in aluminium and glass curtain wall will stand the test of time. The key take home, in terms of an ESD story, is a flexible shell with a flexible fit out,” de la Coeur comments.

Flexbrick is a cradle-to-cradle material with a circle of sustainability in all its phases. The ceramic pieces are made with biogas, and in addition to having a long and useful life, pieces are easy to replace and repair, while its lightness, compared to more traditional systems, results in lower CO2 generation. It is a 100 per cent recyclable and recoverable ceramic fabric and all the components used, including the flexible metal fabric, come from recycled and recyclable materials. Its application has numerous bioclimatic advantages, including solar filter and sun shading. The traditional brickwork base on which the facade sits is made from carbon neutral bricks produced in Tasmania, using biofuels and any remaining emissions were offset.

The double skin facade allows for ample user-controlled fresh air and natural ventilation while still maintaining privacy. Landscaped outdoor spaces have been included with a large roof garden and a terrace facing Toorak Road, that provide green outdoor breakout spaces. Inside, the offices are purposefully raw and clean and have been leased as shells to reduce or eliminate building waste.

“We didn’t install plasterboard ceilings or plaster around columns because we wanted to keep the interior as flexible as possible. What normally happens is developers put false ceilings in and the incoming tenants pull them out and the materials are wasted. We deliberately left it flexible and incoming tenants really like this aspect as they can do their own thing. Many of the tenants haven’t even put ceilings in, they’ve just given the underside of slab a coat of paint and are enjoying the additional ceiling height,” says de la Coeur.

Through a thoughtful and clever design, 151 Toorak Road stands proud in the urban density of South Yarra but also provides an interior environment that creates a place of comfort and wellbeing. It responds to the neighbouring heritage structure and the other disparate architectural styles of the neighbourhood but is a dynamic design that catches the eye and deflects the summer sun. Including Flexbrick as a primary material and conceiving a patterned brise soleil gives the building a certain gravitas.

151 Toorak Road is unique and flexible – a chameleon of sorts. With Token, the ground floor restaurant now open, there are plans that perhaps the rooftop might become a bar and in time the offices could be apartments so that the building will become something entirely different. That’s architecture and design at its best, where providing choice and adaptability ensures sustainability through longevity for today and tomorrow.

Another project, Tarakan Street Social and Affordable Housing, from Bird de la Coeur Architects along with NH Architecture and Openwork+Tract, has been shortlisted in The Multi-residential Building category at the 2024 INDE.Awards.

Bird de la Coeur Architects
birddelacoeur.com.au

Photography
Dianna Snape

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