Project Overview

Royal Shores is not only a new waterfront community, but it is introducing and unlocking the Harbour for the entire suburb of Ermington and bringing it to life in a really exciting way.

Set right on the waterfront at the gateway to Sydney Harbour, Royal Shores is one of PAYCE’s and Sekisui House Australia’s most unique urban developments to date.

Organisation

PAYCE Consolidated Limited and Sekisui House

Team

PAYCE Consolidated Limited, Developer
Sekisui House Australia, Joint Venture Partner
HDR | Rice Daubney, Architectural
M Projects, Project Management
Brooks Community Consultants, Community Consultant
James Pfeiffer, Landscape Architects
Turner, Interiors Architect
Sutherland Planning Associates, Social Impact Study
Varga Traffic Planning, Traffic Planning
Acoustic Logic, Environmental Noise Assessment

Project Brief

Royal Shores with its 632 apartments is a collaboration between PAYCE and Sekisui House Australia and builds on their long standing history of transforming places and building communities. Drawing from the harbour front site’s rich maritime history, the extraordinary and original approach by leading architects HDR | Rice Daubney, will ensure Royal Shores is one of the most recognisable architectural statements on Sydney Harbour.

Throughout the built form, the interiors and the site itself, there are many wonderful reference to Sydney’s maritime heritages. As well as the foreshore’s newly created Halvorsen Park, streets are also named after Sydney’s famous Halvorsen motor cruisers. This will be Sydney’s newest waterfront suburb with terrific aspect and views back down the Harbour to the city skyline. A new ferry service is also proposed to serve the new community.

Royal Shores is a place where residents can live a life less ordinary and experience extraordinary.

Project Innovation/Need

The overarching aim for this development was to introduce the Harbour to Ermington. Royal Shores unlocks the Harbour making it into a tremendous asset. Rather than seeing the waterfront as an enclave, it has been opened up and made permeable, so that it draws people to interact with the water, the foreshore and Harbour. You see views and glimpses throughout the site and you continually experience the life of the water whether strolling along the reimagined foreshore when arriving home or from the privacy of your apartment.

These incredible experiential bridged entries create a real sense of homecoming, a private yet wonderfully ceremonial entry. The continual and very dynamic engagement between inside and outside give Royal Shores a unique “experiential” quality.

There is a duality to the whole experience of Royal Shores that makes it special and unique. Between the openness of the views and the active waterfront mixed with the all seasons living rooms that let you live outside but yet enjoy complete privacy, unlike other waterfront developments, Royal Shores gives you respite from always being on show.

Design Challenge

Royal Shores re-envisions the site as it is today, yet is referential to the way it once stood. It draws from its history and reinterprets that in a contemporary way. White painted brick facades have a maritime feel. Pitched and saw-tooth roof forms speak to both the naval history and Ermington’s traditional 1940s houses in the established suburb behind the site.

Throughout the architecture there is a constant play between inside and out. The balconies have been positioned and designed as over-scaled all season’s living rooms that run alongside the apartments. This provides tremendous amenity to residents, but also acts as “pauses” in the built form to allow air, sun and views to pass through. There are also inner sanctums within each building, internal courtyards that allow further air, light and view in to the apartments.

Sustainability

Some of the key guiding principles of the design came out of significant community consultation. Community issues raised were how to mitigate the effect of increased parking upon the area and how to reduce noise pollution infiltration from busy Silverwater Road.

By locating all visitors car parking within basement levels the issue of car parking has been largely overcome. The issue of noise pollution from Silverwater Road has reduced by designing an 8 storey building form along this boundary to create a purposeful precinct edge for residents living behind to the west.

Further to the above PAYCE has developed a masterplan for the foreshore and river front reserve that includes significant upgrading and provision for landscaping, playground, ferry terminal and upgraded car parking. The provision of a neighbourhood store positioned within an easy walk to the ferry terminal provides a natural meeting place for residents where that can catch the morning sun and engage with the river reserve.