Project Overview

Avantra iCommunity is a premium residential development which blends an iconic industrial past with contemporary city living, offering tranquil living spaces in what is now identified as Sydney’s most lively community and vibrant culture.

With Ground breaking initiatives in the way residential towers are designed for the future, featuring the distinctive ‘Streets in the Sky’ exclusively designed for Avantra iCommunity.

Our aim is to inspire people to surround themselves with a beautiful and innovative home that will enhance their lifestyle.

Within the building we have socialising and entertaining areas. Two rooftop retreats’ with a series of private spaces. A spectacular rooftop pool, gym, barbecue areas and garden with impressive views. A generously oversized sized tranquil middle garden at ground level between the two towers, designed to create harmony between the built and organic environments.

The interiors present a stylish and urban contemporary outlook offering lifestyle and privacy. By cleverly balancing interior space with external aspects, we have created a resort style ambiance with a uniquely urban aesthetic.

Avantra iCommunity apartments have been designed to be fitted with Home Automation that is accessed via the apartment’s iPad and a smart electronic concierge service called myiButler to deliver the 'Ultimate Longton Lifestyle'.

Organisation

Longton Capital Pty Ltd

Team

'Streets in the Sky', ground breaking initiative and exclusively designed for Avantra iCommunity.

A totally integrated design team with vision and incredible commitment was required to create and implement ‘Streets in the Sky’, as everything that design consultants have applied in residential development was turned on its head with this new concept, ‘Streets in the Sky’.

Project Creator
Jianguang Wang, Chairman and Managing Director
Longton Property Group by Longton Capital Pty Ltd.

Project Contact
Sajonara Sucic, Director of PR & Marketing

Project Design Team
Architects - MD+A Architects, Brent Marvin and Bill Clements.
Project Management - Dedico Development Services, John Green and Joe Luca Donato.
Interior Designers - A+W Interior Designers, Richard Archer and Lindy Wright.
Landscape Architects - 360° Landscape Architects, Daniel Baffsky and Claire Winsor.
Structural Engineers - Northrop Consulting Engineers, Stephen Fryer and Jamie Shelton.

Project Brief

Avantra iCommunity blends an iconic industrial past with contemporary city living. This premium apartment complex has 4 multi-level buildings: 2 buildings that create the North Tower, each with 9 levels, one crowned with a spectacular rooftop pool. The South Tower has 2 buildings, each with 13 levels, one with a divine rooftop sky garden. Total of 309 apartments, 2 basement carparks and 3 parks to suite all lifestyles.

Ground breaking and exclusively designed for Avantra iCommunity, ‘Street in the Sky’. This amazing development has been designed to feature multiple atria like light voids opening to the sky and running through every level. The full-height light voids allow 100% ventilation and natural light through every level.

On alighting from a lift, residents will access their apartments via suspended open walkways, sheltered from the rain by a rooftop ‘lid’. The ‘Street’ (corridors) have been designed to be generously oversized and spacious with approximately 6 metres between front doors, which is typical of a small lane way.

We’ve created ‘Streets in the Sky’ by duplicating the concept of a small suburban streetscape and reassembling its elements vertically. The vertical landscaping flowing through the ‘Streets’ enhances the harmony between the structure, organic and surroundings.

Project Innovation/Need

Avantra iCommunity’s design emphasis is on the greater environment within the complex with a holistic approach. In view of the residents perspective within the development on issues such as social, wellbeing and community networks as well as environmental and energy efficiency.

Our vision is to build a community not just a building, to create a lifestyle not just a development. This is the embodiment behind creating the concept ‘Streets in the Sky’, small suburban streets and reassembling their elements vertically, with surrounding green space.

Avantra iCommunity offers residents tranquil green living spaces with three main parks, each with different facilities and attributes for a variety of lifestyles - 2 rooftop retreats and a generous middle garden. With the added advantage of a dedicated social media platform connecting the community to create a virtual neighbourhood, each element on it’s own or together creates the opportunity to build and bond a community.

Instrumental to the energy efficiency is the creation of the ‘Streets in the Sky’ that connect the apartments. The multiple light voids within them capture rising heat vertically and the open end corridors promote cross ventilation horizontally through the ‘Streets’.

Design Challenge

Residents today have a wealth of options available in the standard of apartment design, now residents are looking for more than the promise of a well-appointed fitout, they want a greater living environment and engaging lifestyle with their home.

Currently high rise apartment designs focus on regulatory control of the development. The future in residential development is to focus on the greater environment with a holistic approach. The lack of tackling areas such as, security, social issues, wellbeing as well as environmental and energy efficiency, in design has been the cause of major failures in the high rise models in the past. As we reengage with apartment design being not just for the wealthy, we need to understand the cause of these failures.

Research shows that the elderly, young, single and limited income families need the support of their community. Many of the units being sold today are to investors and the same demographic groups become the residents leasing the apartments. The environment as a greater point of view becomes the priority. We need new design methodology not to repeat the same mistakes of the past.

Our vision is to build a community and not just a building.

Sustainability

With an expanding city population and a diminishing resources base, we are looking for better ways to address both issues and to design future housing.

High rise - high density accommodation solutions achieve both of these by maximising population whilst minimising our carbon footprint at the same time.

The downside of this as we see in many developments, is the opportunity for community creation, engagement and natural environs have been sacrificed.

‘Streets in the Sky’ concept has been intensively modelled with regards to practicability. By creating the ‘Streets’ to connect each dwelling, environmental and social challenges have been addressed.

The vertically stacked ‘Streets’ provide a natural living environment surrounding. With spaces at all levels to humanise the experience within the building that encourages casual interactions within the ‘Streets’ and parks in a safe and secure way.

Central to the design of ‘Street in the Sky’ are the multiple light voids per tower, we address environmental and energy efficiency of the design. The full-height light voids run from the rooftop to ground and through every level, allowing 100% cross ventilation through the building and natural light to flow throughout, to each apartment and across the open end corridors on every level.