Christie Walk Stage 3
Christie Walk Stage 3 is a 5-storey building with 13 apartments and a ground level community area with a kitchen, dining or meeting room, library, toilet (disabled access), laundry.
Photo: Stage 3 as seen from Sturt Street.
Plan
The overall plan is a square divided into four apartments, with a lightwell, stairs and lift access through the centre.
At ground level there is one apartment, with the rest of the ground floor being community access and community space.
There are four apartments on each of the first and second floors. The third floor has two slightly larger apartments and two with upper levels, creating two-storey penthouses.
See Stage 3 Plans - a set of images showing the site plan, the floor plans and selected apartment plans.
Apartments
The apartments are compact, energy efficient, and designed to accommodate modern living.
Each of the two 3rd floor street frontage apartments have two balconies and a glazed bay that dramatically projects the central room (bedroom or study) out from the building façade.
The two penthouses each have two bathrooms and either three well sized bedrooms with one large eating/living area, or two bedrooms and two living areas. They also each have a balcony and a roof top patio.
Ventilation
Fresh air is brought into the core of the building to enable cross-ventilation, with the air supply cooled by automatically-operated central evaporative coolers in hot weather.
Light
The apartments are single aspect and have generally high levels of natural light with task lighting in the kitchen areas. The lightwell provides natural light and ventilation to the building’s heart, cascading with vegetation, making the entry experience pleasant and welcoming.
Photo: Looking up the lightwell to translucent photovoltaic panels. (Installation of the photovoltaics was assistedby a grant from the Australian Greenhouse Office.)
Construction
Construction is steel framed with concrete slab floors providing thermal mass and aerated concrete panel cladding with added insulation for a higher-than-average overall thermal (and acoustic) performance.
Finishes
Internally, finishes are of high quality with sound insulation in excess of building code requirements. Floor finishes are tile and Marmoleum (consistently rated as a top ‘green’ flooring material). Only recycled and plantation timbers will be used (to reduce depletion of old-growth forests).
Water
All stormwater is collected from the building's roof for use on site.
An on-site sewer mine, connected to the existing Christie Walk system, is planned, with the treated water to be used to irrigate a nearby park (Whitmore Square).
Hot Water
The hot water system will use electric heat pumps , which extract heat from the outside air, like a refrigerator in reverse, and are around four times more efficient than an ordinary electric (resistance heater) hot water system.
Carparking
Carparking can be leased at a City Council Carpark just across Sturt St.
Community Areas
All residents on the site have access to the community areas: community gardens and landscaped areas including a large roof-top garden, community meeting room with library annex, kitchen and toilet and laundry.
Drawing: Stage 3 as might be seen from the northwest.
2007.4.29