Touring a Modern Beachfront Apartment Building in Melbourne

Azura is located on this wonderful slither of land between the beach and the railway. It's highly sought after and tightly held. It's 25 kilometres from the city, great access to public transport and then you're just on this beachfront and the beach is just magnificent. My name's Glenn Chamberlain and I'm a Director at Chamberlain Architects and we were the architects for this wonderful project. The name Azura is inspired by the Spanish name Sky Blue which connects to the crystal clear waters of Aspendale. Azura Aspendale consists of 19 apartments, 10 of which face the water and eight townhomes. The design team for this project was definitely the most important component to get right. They really understood what was important to us and what was important to our clientele. Part of what we wanted to do with this development with the architecture was to pick up on that vast horizon that you get when you're on the beach. What we wanted to design was something that was quite singular in its form. We employed materials that would age gracefully, the concrete will develop a patina, it won't deteriorate in this harsh environment and the idea being that when you're on the beach and you're looking back at Azura, it's this beautiful simple set of forms that doesn't try and do too much and dominate the natural landscape and that was I suppose juxtaposed with what we did behind the beachfront apartments you know where we wanted to create a bit of visual interest, a little bit of fine grain, a little bit of urbanism, a different feel from what you get at the beach. Being such a deep site and having some of the dwellings at the back, we wanted to make sure that everybody in the development had access to the beach so one of the strategies there was to sort of cut the building form at the front of the site and create these walkways and internal laneways if you like that allowed people to get direct access to the beach. This was our first collaboration with Chamberlain Architects. It's really important to understand the design and the design intent and what they're bringing externally to make sure that it marries up and has a synergy. Consistency in finish, considering materiality but most importantly framing the gorgeous view of the beach. The flora and the landscape is so unique in this area and it's something that we took from in terms of texture and tone. You can see it within the chalky limestone on the fireplaces, glazed tiles on surfaces that are almost a little bit shell-like and then also in the kitchen the honed and textured granite which is not only hardy and practical but also I guess references the landscape too. We worked with man-made veneers which are responsibly made and renewable resources. The paints are all low VOC so good for our environment. When selecting finishes there's always a consideration to the longevity of the material. So using a lot of natural materials but also within the taps and the wells ratings and certain specifications of ovens and making sure that they hit the mark in terms of codes and regulations. We were able to get windows front and back which is critical in allowing us to get cross ventilation which when you're on the beach and you've got those wonderful sea breezes on those hot days you can open up both sides of the apartment and get that natural ventilation. We've got these generous deep balconies with glass balustrades. They've got shelter, they've got protection but they also open up and focus your view onto the beach and to the bay beyond. These concrete shrouds give you that sense that you are in your own apartment and you've got your own private view and I think that's one of the real success stories of the design. We've got these incredibly expansive decks which give you this sense that you're the only person on the prow of a ship looking out at the bay and it's just a wonderful addition to what are already generous apartments. Having a beachfront location definitely allowed us the opportunity to have some fantastic outdoor indoor living and landscape architecture for this project was really important. Jack Merlow was the landscape architect and for us it was really challenging to ensure you could have a great landscape solution in an area that is so exposed and so harsh and a big part of doing that was connecting the landscape, the boardwalk, the front gates, the front fences to the development. From a macro point of view there's consistency between every dwelling here. Low Living have done a great job in terms of executing a really strong idea throughout the whole development. From a micro point of view we're pleased that the detailing that Golden created has come to fruition and the integrity of materials really shines through. I'm so proud of the overall look and feel from the beach you know I think that singular concrete idea which was you know really championed by Low Living sits so beautifully within the landscape and doesn't try to do too much it's just something that I think is going to be really quite timeless on the Aspendale foreshore. I grew up along the beach I know how important it is and I know what it can do for people when it comes to improving their lifestyle and this development was able to give people that opportunity to enjoy what will be so important to them in the future.