Shared from the 11/28/2020 AGE Domain eEdition
Prestige and in prime position
MODERN HOMES
KATE JONES
Not only is it one of Melbourne’s most affluent suburbs, but also among its most beautiful.
The Yarra’s windy road at the northern end is met by the bush beauty of Studley Park and some of the city’s best river views. This particularly pretty pocket in Kew is also the chosen spot for many of Australia’s celebrated modernist homes by architects including Robin Boyd. A clutch of at least eight riverside Kew homes is cited by the Australian Institute of Architects as among Australia’s most notable 20th-century buildings. Any architect designing a new building in the blue-ribbon suburb is sharply aware of its prestige, says Tim Clarke, director of Telha Clarke. “Kew is one of those suburbs that as an architect you admire the styles and the retention of a number of last century’s architectural styles and the Kew location comes with the cachet that you have to be respectful to,” he says. Clarke’s and his team have curated the design of what will be one of Kew’s next-generation buildings. At eight levels plus a communal rooftop.
Views capture the city, in a postcode with cachet.
No.1 Studley Park will be constructed at the site of a former dentistry clinic, close to Kew Junction.
Such a location called for close attention to design detail, Clarke says. “We’re very conscious that it’s extremely visible and it needed to be designed on all sides, so every single facade was important,” he says. “This isn’t just an architecture that considers the street and nothing else. It needed to be designed from all around because of it’s visibility from almost every single street that meets the juncture.” A brick facade covers the lower levels, while the tiered upper levels are treated to large windows. Views extend up the tree-covered hill along Studley Park Road and to the city beyond. Pricing of many of the 30 apartments within has been aimed squarely at those who may not be able to afford a stand-alone home in Kew which has a median house price of about $2.2 million and there’s a lot of young adults, first-home buyers and second-home buyers, who may not be able to crack into that market particularly if they want to live where they grew up, near their parents. What they have decided to do with this particular development is position the project in around those sorts of people, so they can actually get into Kew.”
