Comprehensive Housing Development

A high-quality development to set a new benchmark for living in Wellington City. This was a lofty goal, one which DGSE thoroughly enjoyed exploring through the development of 2 apartment buildings and 5 high-end townhouses. These residences were proposed as a part of a larger mixed-use development featuring new commercial buildings, hotels, and community green spaces.

The brief called for variety and diversity, with each building being intentionally eclectic and unique. The design achieves this by playing on the existing vernacular, acknowledging the former uses and character of the site through subtle articulation of the roof forms and materiality which is robust, functional, and tactile.

The apartments provide a no-nonsense and pragmatic back drop to the visually prominent townhouses which line the foreshore promenade. These apartments are intentionally recessive and articulated through larger scale architectural gestures such as textured buttressed walls, angled balconies and raised podiums, which appear to raise the buildings out of the rocky coastline.

The design of the built and natural environments manifests design narratives that reflect both the history and aspirations of mana-whenua. These Pūrakau are embodied in the character, experience and detailing of each building, and their relationship to Te Taiao.