Space-age apartment living
Don’t be alarmed by the spaceship that has just landed at Rosebery – it’s actually a cutting-edge residential building called Coda.
Wilkinson Award-winning architect Frank Stanisic is turning heads with his metallic zeppelin on the corner of Epson Rd and Joynton Ave.
“I wanted the building to resemble a shiny airship, floating above the street yet anchored to the ground,” Stanisic said. His use of aluminium cladding and a zinc-based paint finish on the steel façade – like the finish on the Sydney Harbour Bridge – makes the building stand out from its masonry neighbours.
The curvaceous six-storey Coda is also very different on the inside. All 44 apartments are two storeys with soaring ceilings, dramatic voids and flexible spaces that allow privacy between the living areas and sleeping quarters, and provide better natural light and ventilation.
Coda builds on the sustainable design principles of nearby Green Square, which Stanisic master-planned, and which foreshadowed the focus on climate change. Exterior colours are brown, grey and pewter, creating a dramatic silhouette against the sky. The darker colours also reduce glare to the interiors and provide a soft and relaxed atmosphere.
Each apartment is designed for maximum operability, with sliding aluminium plantation shutters and folding glass windows giving occupants the option of changing the interior mood by adjusting levels of light, sun and privacy. The banks of shutters help keep the apartments cool in summer, while the glass panels retain warmth in winter.
“I wanted to create an uplifting experience for occupants and passers-by – a living environment brimming with light, air and sun,” Stanisic said. “As residents modify the shutters it gives Coda an ever-changing external appearance.”
All apartments at Coda run the full width of the building and have both north and south-facing aspects, gaining views to the CBD and to Botany Bay. Because the apartments are naturally cross-ventilated there is no need for air-conditioning.
The environmental features also have a financial benefit, with strata levies at Coda a low $450 per quarter, on average, which is less than half that of other new apartment buildings in the area.
“Sydneysiders are design-smart, so at Coda I avoided standard blade walls, grid patterns and ‘fruit salad’ rendered façades,” Stanisic said.
“Our materials are raw yet refined, paying homage to Rosebery’s working-class roots. They give the building a different texture, reflective elements and points of emphasis.”
The apartments are up to 25 percent larger than prevailing Sydney standards. The one-bedrooms are 83sqm and start from $429,000. They have cathedral-like ceilings, with a loft bedroom looking over the living areas, and a study facing the landscaped courtyard to the south.
The two-bedroom apartments are 107sqm and start from $599,000. They have timber-decked balconies on each level.
Coda is at 33 Epson Rd, Rosebery, and is open for inspection on Wednesdays noon-2pm and weekends 1pm-4pm, or through Michael Kurosawa of Infinity Property Agents on 0411 641 662, or visit the website: www.codaterraces.com.au.
