High-end multi-residential projects provide a lifestyle for residents that combines luxury living and security along with outstanding amenity, all in a stellar location. As the latest project from LIFE Architecture and Urban Design, Fellowship Kew has all these advantages but so much more – with maximum room to move and privacy assured.

Working with Zynergy Property, Mark Spraggon (Director at LIFE) and his team have conceived a new template for apartment living that creates all the benefits of a stand-alone home within an apartment.

The 1500-square-metre site is located in Fellows Street, Studley Park, Kew, a suburb renowned for its large heritage homes and post-war modernist architecture. With mature trees lining the streetscape, it was important to distil the idea of establishment in the architecture of Fellowship Kew; it’s a quality that Spraggon, as Project Director and Lead Designer, has achieved.

In collaboration with SORA Interior Architecture and Design, LIFE has created living at its best for a discerning clientele. The architecture is pared-back and monumental, a solid expression of timeless design as well as interiors that offer only the very best in comfort and amenity.

“The whole process was extremely collaborative,” says Spraggon. “While Zynergy Property showed a lot of confidence in our ability to deliver, they were keen to understand what we were doing and had some good ideas. And then obviously with SORA, our sister company, sharing the same office, it was so easy to coordinate this project, the joinery and detailing.”

The concept for the project comprising 20 apartments is for two buildings, each with ten apartments spread over three levels with a basement. Ground floor living includes landscaped areas and individual pools, while the first-floor apartments have curated gardens and outside areas shielded for privacy by solid glass bricks. The uppermost residences have outdoor living spaces with outstanding views across the suburban surrounds, and the basement provides car parking and storage.

Unlike many multi-residential projects where floor-to-ceiling glazing is the norm, Fellowship Kew is more restrained, with windows for connection to the outside curated for maximum light and privacy. The landscaping is also pivotal to the design, with Jack Merlo creating lush gardenscapes in private enclosures and terraces with wrap around plantings that bring the outside indoors and provide a biophilic dimension to the overall design.

For many of the residents who have moved from the family home, this is the first time living in an apartment. Their desire has been to have a residence that offers the space, privacy and comfort of their previous house within a multi-residential setting that affords lock and leave security and minimal maintenance.

Prioritising privacy, there are no communal gathering places, save the entrance lobbies, as residents have space enough within their apartments to entertain a crowd and superior amenities such as theatre rooms, gyms or other facilities should they choose.

In keeping with the gravitas of the architecture, the materiality is minimal and authentic with cream bricks and black steel detailing on the exterior. Soffits are brick lined, there are detailed window reveals and brises soleils have been included for interest and transparency.

Spraggon reflects, “One of the best aspects of the project I think, was being able to retain our initial concept of having this very monolithic element, which couldn’t have been achieved if we didn’t detail, for example, the window reveals and the soffits to appropriately achieve the brick finish. It’s actually quite unusual to have a brick lined soffit, so being able to achieve that, I think, was, was really key to the design. If it had stopped on the facade, or appeared one brick deep, as a sort of brick veneer, then we would have really lost that solidity. And I think that’s what really makes Fellowship Kew stand out from other buildings of its age, where there really hasn’t been any expense spared, in securing the design concept.”

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The interior features stone and timber that informs the concise colour palette of creamy white and mocha. Venetian plaster is a refined touch on walls and solid oak parquetry adds substance to the aesthetic. Light penetrates the interiors of the apartments and becomes a part of the interior design intention as the dappled patterned forms change with the day and season.

To ensure that all interior inclusions are perfect, Interiors Lead and Executive Manager SORA, Chantelle Balliro, worked with LIFE and individual clients to achieve the correct balance of style and sophistication that is integral to Fellowship Kew.

Apartments range in size from 140-square-metres to 450-square-metres and there is ample space for all requirements. Each residence boasts custom-designed cabinetry along with a credenza, a marble clad bar, a fireplace with stone hearth, walk-in laundry and Butler’s pantry. The interior is a neutral canvas that can be crafted to the style of the resident, as art and furnishings become a singular statement of each resident.

Fellowship Kew is another excellent project from LIFE and SORA that is creating a new paradigm in multi-residential living. Providing the space and facility of a stand-alone single residence within the form of an apartment is meeting a need for the luxury housing market and doing it with infinite style and finesse.

LIFE Architecture and Urban Design
lifearchitecture.com.au

SORA Interior Architecture and Design
sorainteriors.com.au

Jack Merlo Landscape Architecture
jackmerlo.com

Photography
Timothy Kaye

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