Located in inner city Surry Hills Sydney, 38 – 52 Waterloo St is a 5 storey ‘mixed use’ predominately residential apartment building. Candalepas Associates undertook significant design modifications to an existing approved development application prepared by Frost Architecture. The ground floor level of the development consists of commercial & retail tenancies addressing both Waterloo & Adelaide streets whilst also opening onto an external courtyard space to the south.

The project includes a number of sustainable building practices such as cross ventilation, natural and low maintenance materials and finishes, good solar access as well as the use of materials with high thermal mass. Key formal contributors to the project’s architectural expression are both its site specificity as well as its programme. Of particular importance to the design was the consideration of the architecturally significant ‘Reader’s Digest’ building located directly opposite the site to the north and the incorporation of the mature stand of Melaleucas to provide an important filtering element. The location of private balconies for the apartments on the building’s street façades and the use of unifying elements such as timber batten screens and off-form concrete projections provides for an interplay across the facades of shadow and light.