Precinct 75, designed by COX Architecture for Coronation Property on the historic Taubmans Paint Factory site in St Peters, has revealed its interiors. The build-to-rent project uses saturated colour across its amenity spaces, departing from the neutral palettes common in Australian rental developments.

The design preserves the site’s industrial elements – exposed concrete, brickwork, warehouse forms – while layering in colour and domestic detail. A glossy green ceiling features in the private dining room. The ground floor lobby incorporates iridescent panels that shift with light. The cocktail bar uses cherry reds and crimson tones.

“There’s so much richness in the existing structures and textures of the place,” says Brooke Lloyd, Director and interior design lead at COX Sydney. “When we walked around, there were all these hidden gems – small retailers, craftspeople and makers. A lot of the planning was about keeping that intimate scale.”

The colour schemes reference the Taubmans archive, connecting the interiors to the site’s past life as a paint factory. “We wanted to lean into those saturated palettes and make it joyful,” Lloyd explains. “Usually with build-to-rent, operators want things quite neutral – but that’s not the character of this site or the Inner West.”

“Each building has its own palette, drawn from the Taubmans archive, so the whole precinct becomes a living expression of time and place,” Lloyd says. The sequencing creates different emotional responses. “The entertainment section – podcast room, bar, cinema – you walk in and you’re transported. The sports precinct is about high energy and socialisation.”

The amenity offering includes a rooftop pool with city views, landscaped terraces, wellness zones with plunge pools, a cinema, podcast recording studio, music room and private dining spaces. For Felipe Miranda, Director and project lead at COX, the approach inverts typical priorities. “The architecture is really a backdrop for the community and the people who’ll live here – we turned it on its head.”

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“All the amenities are about community and finding your tribe,” Lloyd adds. “In build-to-rent you’re creating collisions – not orchestrating community per se but facilitating shared spaces where people can find their smaller tribes within the bigger tribe of the Inner West.”

The build-to-rent model operates differently from traditional rental developments, with single ownership maintaining control over the entire building rather than individual investor owners. This structure allows for more consistent amenity provision and longer-term planning. “Build-to-rent in Australia is both a pathway to improving housing outcomes and an opportunity to reimagine what renting looks like,” says Miranda. “This is about designing for resilience, community and a future where renting is intentional.”

“Precinct 75 is proof that build-to-rent can set a new benchmark for how Australians live,” says Joe Nahas, Managing Director of Coronation Property. “Too often, renting has meant making do – here, we’re turning that on its head. We’re delivering spaces with the detail, energy and amenity you’d expect in a five-star hotel, but with the soul of the neighbourhood built in.”

The design process included co-design sessions with a resident group, allowing future occupants to contribute to decisions about materials and public spaces. “We sat down with the community and put up images of brickwork, green spaces – they could tell us what they cared about,” Miranda says. “This community aspect added a depth that made it genuine.” The main lawn at the precinct’s centre emerged from that process. “We were generous with the walkways around it. It’s a place for people to be drawn to.”

Lloyd points to the entertainment quarter as a personal highlight. “The saturated red bar, the deep blue – these are spaces you’d normally seek out as a treat in the city, but it’s right here in the amenity.”

The project reflects COX’s broader mission. “At a precinct level, our projects always touch the public realm,” says Lloyd. “Historically our mission has been socially led – how do we improve public life.”

Precinct 75 sits within a growing number of build-to-rent developments entering the Australian market, bringing different approaches to amenity, design quality and resident services.

COX Architecture
coxarchitecture.com.au

Photography
Courtesy of COX