Uno Apartments

On an underutilised site in Adelaide’s CBD this project consists of 146 apartments for Housing SA, including 30 Youth Services apartments. The composition stems from international maritime flag signals. The flag for the letter L, when used in isolation, indicates ‘you should stop, I have something important to communicate’. The tectonic massing of the building relating to Youth Services, emulates this signal – serving as a subtle reminder of the importance of this facility and its environmental sustainability.

Abutting the heritage listed 1840’s Queen’s Theatre, this 6 Star rated Social Housing Initiative uses innovative design to deal with its context, in particular the acoustic issues of the Theatre and live music venue immediately across the street and the heritage impact upon the Theatre. This project was challenging on many fronts including time frames which required a costed concept design in an incredibly compressed time frame.

Green gardens are integrated at every level at the ends and midpoint of the corridors to provide landscape and a focus that would be expected in a more traditional low scale development. The design is further enhanced with roof terraces along the Waymouth Street podium activating and greening these often underutilised spaces. Another unique and innovative feature is the use of sliding security screen doors to apartment entry doors so that natural cross ventilation can be achieved by using the naturally ventilated corridors.

The project was a joint venture with Bird de la Coeur Architects.  This project is unique on many fronts and will set a new benchmark in affordable and mixed tenancy apartment developments. It has been a beacon project for the city’s landscape and flags change in the standard for integrated social housing.