Durbach Block Jaggers’ 20-storey Omnia apartment building has been completed in Sydney. It occupies a site at the “gateway” to Potts Point and Kings Cross.
Evocative of New York’s Flatiron Building and borrowing parts of its plan from Le Corbusier’s Unite d’Habitation in Marseille, the tower is wedged between Victoria Street and Darlinghurst Road – across from the landmark Coca-Cola billboard, erected in 1974.
The Omnia apartment building by Durbach Block Jaggers, with SJB, Studio Aria and Aspect Studio.
Image: Martin Siegner
An adaptive re-use of the site’s former 15-storey Mercure Hotel, the tower is distinctive for its curvaceous hourglass form and sculptural, tiled podium, which Durbach Block Jaggers director Neil Durbach describes as a “pale green version of the Coca-Cola sign.”
The tower comprises 135 apartments, including three dual-level penthouses. SJB designed the interiors for much of the building, while Studio Aria designed the penthouses. Aspect Studio was responsible for the landscape design.
Some of the apartments feature sections inspired by the 1952 Unite d’Habitation, where the apartments are dual level and L-shaped in section, allowing one level to have access to natural light and ventilation at both ends.
Speaking with ArchitectureAU earlier this year, Neil Durbach described the building’s distinctive appearance, noting that the façade features 200 distinct elements.
“It’s a huge amount of variation, but the building looks incredibly calm; you would have no idea that it’s such a crazy series of components,” he said.
“I think with a lot of buildings, especially apartment buildings, there’s no variation but they sort of disguise it to look like there is variation.
“For us it was this inverted thing: you try to hide complexities, where as other people try to invent complexities.”
The Omnia apartment building by Durbach Block Jaggers, with SJB, Studio Aria and Aspect Studio.
Image: Martin Siegner
The building’s hourglass shape was achieved by decreasing the length of each slab by 180 mm per floor over 10 levels and then increasing the size of the slabs again.
The $320 million tower is the project of developer Greenland Australia. The company’s managing director Sherwood Luo said, “This exceptional build quality is important given Omnia’s high-profile location, which effectively redefines the gateway to Potts Point and Kings Cross, one of Sydney’s most iconic food and beverage and entertainment precincts.”
