Illura

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Illura

Firm

Type

Residential › Multi Unit Housing

STATUS

Built

Paul Keating’s tenure as Prime Minister accomplished more than economic reform; he also codified Australia’s identity, acknowledging that our role in the Asia-Pacific region could co-exist with our indigenous and European roots. Our new boutique apartment complex Illura explores this idea through its natural environments, at once regenerating indigenous flora, native to the local West Melbourne area, as well as offering a secluded Asian inspired landscape.Illura is an ecologic throwback for West Melbourne. The drought resistant grasslands grown on the side of the building have been extinct in this area since pre- colonisation over 100 years ago, and have been reseeded, propagated and brought back by fenestration for the growing facades. The native flora brings back a missing piece to the ecosystem of Roden Street – itself a distinctly Australian landscape – one of the greenest streets in West Melbourne, flanked by 50 year old eucalypts. These growing walls ensure that the apartments are integrated with the landscape, as well as assisting with shade and privacy for the north-facing apartments. Between the two apartment buildings sits a garden of mystery and retreat, featuring three different species of bamboo, reminiscent of Ang Lee’s masterpiece Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Due to their structure, the apartments are permeable shells that exist as part of this space as much as behind it, the upper two levels wrapped in an Australian hardwood cocoon.The warping, distorted structures of the apartments reference the modernist fixation with the plastic properties of concrete and the sensory perception created by the interaction between the roof and columns. At times they appear to droop and flow downwards, at other times the upper levels pull and hoist the weight of the elements below, becoming sponges; creating spaces through inhabited objects.Viewed from inside, this sponge-like permeability is clear, the apartments don’t end with the glass, but draw the landscape in through the timber joinery and earth floors. Interiors feature custom-designed combination island benches/banquette seating – unique pieces that enhance social interaction and provide flexibility in apartment living.Illura’s lobby ties together the two landscape concepts – the green stone and mirrors are used to recreate the sensory effect of looking through the canopy of an Australian forest. Your eyes pick up on tones of silver, timber and green through the striated visual plane. The lobby furniture recalls Asian material and form with the stick-like bamboo chairs. A distinctly Australian project, Illura combines the refined materiality of an Asian aesthetic with the durability and contrast of our native landscape – reforming the local eco-system through design.

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Elenberg Fraser

Architecture, Interior Design

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Illura

Illura

Product Spec Sheet

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