Guidelines for the Forgotten Subject of Scale in the Public Domain.
Height Fright … Fear of Height in the Suburbs.
As Sydney groans at the prospect of increased residential density, the thorny subject of building height inevitably comes to the fore during approval processes. SEPP 65 remains almost silent on the issue of height, leaving a vacuum for inarticulate and emotional debate. Typically, Development Control Plans specify height as absolute dimensions measured in numbers of storeys or RLs not to be exceeded.
These rigid preconceptions can be stifling to proper urban design processes. If quality architecture is to transcend the sometimes blindly numerical local government controls, then some rational tools for understanding height need to be developed.
Fortunately, such a tool does exist: “Der Optische-Maassstab”. Its description in this paper might assist architects in taking a lead to elevate the debate.
SCOTTCARVER’s luxury residential project, The Residence apartment tower on Hyde Park, in Sydney, has commenced construction.
As its architects, SCOTTCARVER produced a design, which recognises that the very centrality, which affords these views, also causes the tower to be highly visible from key positions in the city. Great care has been taken to design a building that carries its civic responsibilities with appropriate dignity.