SJB has a history within the architectural industry that spans over forty years. The multidisciplinary firm, as director Tony Battersby explained, was historically an exemplar of high-end luxury residential design. In the late 1980s and 1990s, the firm moved into multi-residential developments, becoming the leaders in their field.
Today SJB remains at the forefront of multi-residential architecture in Australia. In the past decade alone, SJB has delivered approximately 10,000 apartments.
I sat down with the charismatic Tony Battersby, a director at SJB Melbourne, to talk about some of SJB’s latest work, find out what makes him tick and the future of Melbourne’s multi-residential boom.
I’m going to launch straight into the philosophical questions, I hope that’s okay…Tony, What does Architecture mean to you?
Tony: Architecture, I suppose, is the joy of habitation. My brother was a builder and I had a lot of friends who were builders. I learnt about carpentry from a young age and gained an early respect and knowledge of the built form and I was also blessed with the ability to draw.
I follow the philosophy of great artists, engineers and builders such as Renzo Piano and Brunelleschi, and believe that the architect should be well versed in all aspects of architecture: urban design, construction technology, interior design, lighting design, signage and landscape design. I feel these are all important considerations for good architecture.
Where is it that you gain inspiration from when starting the design process on a new project?
Tony: Much of my inspiration comes from walking the site. Understanding the essence of place and its energy and character will inform the design. We must design appropriate buildings for places – achieving this is the enjoyment of the architectural experience. We are custodians of the landscape and so our architecture must have a thoughtfulness and consideration to the built environment.
What do you think is the most appealing aspect to apartment design, and what do you think is appealing for the end user about living in an apartment?
Tony: Having lived in an apartment myself, before I had children, the appeal is that apartments provide compact, affordable living with low maintenance. When I lived in my St Kilda apartment in my early twenties, I rarely used a car. I had access to an amazing neighbourhood along Fitzroy and Acland Streets that occupied by so many great cafes, shops and bars.
We had a gym, a pool, the beach close by and didn’t have to mow a lawn – you have lifestyle at your fingertips and you didn’t have to drive to get anywhere. Life was good.
A well designed apartment can be a joy to live in, similar to a hotel experience.
I find the process of designing an apartment project exciting – from the site visits, schematic designs, through to making considerations of the building’s orientation and passive heating and cooling – I enjoy delivering great, well-considered projects with the residents’ living needs in mind.
For Melbourne, apartments are the way forward in addressing the intense habitation of the city and our accommodation requirements for the future. We are coming to the realisation now that there are benefits to living close to the city and having access to parks, schools, shopping centres, restaurants, and social and cultural amenities without having to drive. It may be worth sacrificing large blocks of land for access to lifestyle amenities.
You said that you enjoyed living in your apartment in your twenties, before you had children. If apartments are to cater for our housing and land shortage, will apartment living suit growing families?
Tony: We are currently working on having enough diversity in our developments to allow for a number of different family units.
In Asia, they prefer to adopt a two bedroom, two bathroom model of apartment living to allow non-related tenants to comfortably live together.
By contrast, Melbourne’s apartment market fluctuates between large units to very small units. At the moment, many still design to financial constraints – this means we have to be creative to make spaces work within these constraints. There must be enough character and amenity so that people will love their apartment and can grow with it.
What do you believe to be key considerations when designing a multi-residential development?
Tony: At SJB, we work from a feasibility and urban design point of view. We want to see our buildings grow and change with the evolving landscape they belong to.
Buyers are craving a sense of identity, particularly in larger apartment projects, and we need to consider this.
For many large-scale projects, we will break down the development into ‘zones’ or ‘characters’ within to provide a greater sense of ownership. For example, our recent apartment project, A Place to Live has four different and unique identities.
Common areas and amenity are very important and we are seeing this in more of our projects. We are now ensuring communal areas such as libraries, rooftop decks, cocktail bars and lounge spaces are included. People are seeking areas to socialise with others and use their apartments as retreats from their busy everyday lives.
With three major apartment developments on the go; Malvern Hill, A Place to Live and Ru de Chapel, what is your process to ensuring that each project has its own identity and style? Can you tell me a little but about each development and how they are perhaps different/similar?
Tony: A Place to Live needed to have quite a presence being located on Burnley Street, next to Victoria Gardens Shopping Centre, and in proximity to the Yarra Bend. We designed 350 apartments which were broken up into four individual characters that provide a bold architectural identity within the overall project – each with a different feel but similar floor plates.
Each building facade also had to have a level of robustness to compete on scale with the shopping centre. The design was very efficient and popular with the buyers in the area.
By contrast, Malvern Hill needed to nestle into the neighbourhood. There needs to be respect for the existing suburb to enable the new project to engage with the established neighbourhood and Malvern Hill achieves this. We opened up the street network allowing walk-ability through the site. We worked hard to integrate the building into the gardens and period homes found in Malvern. We were sensitive to setbacks, the overall scale of the project and allowed for landscaping that complemented the immediate streetscapes. We looked at the textures and grains of the neighbourhood to generate our materials palette.
With Rue de Chapel, we had many south-facing apartments on a narrow block. To balance this, we incorporated a rooftop garden, barbeque deck and common area for residents to access. Each apartment has a perforated screen that allows dappled light to filter through the living spaces – it is quite beautiful to watch the building at different times of the day and see the building change depending on what the habitants are up to. We wanted something that would sit quite neutrally above all the noise of Chapel Street, and I think we achieved this with Rue de Chapel.
Each site represents a different architectural challenge. We don’t have a signature style, our designs come from site responsiveness and a passionate, design-led response to our client’s brief.
With all your experience, for you what makes a stand out architectural project?
Tony: A stand-out project is when you have brought together all the key disciplines in a calm, considered way to allow the architecture to sing.
We don’t want to just be producing apartments – we want to create places that give people pleasure. We strive for innovation and continue to evolve our models for joyful and inspired habitation.
With suburbs such as Richmond, Prahran, South Melbourne, West Melbourne, St Kilda and Docklands in Melbourne in a development boom, where do you think the next residential boom will occur in Melbourne?
Tony: At the moment we are working on a significant project in North Melbourne. We see potential in Footscray and Fishermen’s Bend and generally, the north western side of Melbourne is set to become the next development region for multi-residential housing.
We are even pushing out as far as Oakleigh – that’s right, taking SJB to the suburbs! There is significant opportunity for multi-residential to go beyond the inner city. As the large plots of land become scarce, you will see denser developments spread to the suburbs.
The trend of apartment living will continue to grow and affordability will start to exclude people from traditional home ownership. Many first home owners will be seeking apartments – pushing out beyond the urban growth boundary may not be the best option.
People today seek lifestyle and have a greater desire to move closer to the city and apartment living has become a logical dwelling choice for Melbournians.
For more information on SJB and their portfolio visit their website: SJB
