A sustainable high-rise with lofty ambitions.
January 19th, 2010
Melbourne’s latest high rise project by Valad Property Group ‘AIR Apartments’ – is a residence with serious ecologocial ambitions.
Situated in Valad’s master planned community of ‘Pentridge’ in Coburg, the AIR residence will feature roof top wind turbines to capture wind energy, transferring it to the grid to power lighting in the communal areas of the building.
Designed by Kim Lowman of Rothe Lowman Architects, AIR reaches dizzying heights at 18-storeys high, comprising a total of 275 apartments, the highest in the Coburg area.
“The entire building has been designed to reduce its impact on the environment, to the point of producing its own energy, harnessing the wind’s natural power and heating and cooling powers as well as catching rain water for toilet flushing and garden re-use”, said Andrew Leoncelli, development executive.
“The wind turbines atop AIR make a significant environmental statement as well as producing a stunning architectural impact. We are extremely proud to be the first to bring this technology to residential buildings in Australia”.
An extensive series of solar panels will be installed on the roof of the northern tail of AIR in order to harness solar energy and reduce the need for gas as a provider for hot water.
AIR is part of the Valad Group project to revitalise a six and a half hectare Pentridge site eight kilometres from Melbourne’s city centre.
Valad and Rothe Lowman architects have worked closely with sustainability consultants Norman Disney Young to execute these revolutionary design initiatives.


INDESIGN is on instagram
Follow @indesignlive
A searchable and comprehensive guide for specifying leading products and their suppliers
Keep up to date with the latest and greatest from our industry BFF's!
The Geelong College’s Sport and Wellbeing Centre ‘Belerren’ designed by Wardle is designed around bringing in natural light. But Shade Factor’s job was to help modulate and precisely control it for the most important competitive moments.
The newest brand to emerge from Cosentino’s creative crucible is Ēclos, a next-generation mineral surface that embodies the organic beauty and tactility of marble in a precision-mineral surface or material.
In the last instalment of our three-part performance seating series, Alex Bain from Architectus explains why sitting well shouldn’t feel like sitting at all and explores an unexpected success metric of the hybrid workplace: the grounding power of emotional support.
As Woven Image celebrates 40 years, it introduces a new collection developed in collaboration with Australian artist Ben Goss, inspired by his original artwork Where the Kookaburra Sits into a vibrant collection of digitally printed EchoPanel® murals and patterns.
The Workshopped ‘Design In Architecture’ exhibition has opened in Sydney, and this year celebrates 15 years of showcasing design talent.
The internet never sleeps! Here's the stuff you might have missed
At Paddington Town Hall, the Australian rug studio reflected on two decades of bespoke design with an event that brought its archives, collaborations and making processes into motion.
After two decades of creative partnership, Kim Colin and Sam Hecht of Industrial Facility step into a joint role as Herman Miller’s Global Creative Directors – a reminder that the brand’s ethos isn’t defined solely by their products, but also by the quiet thread of thought that shapes the space in-between, crafting a purposeful, human-centric and enduring trajectory.