By Gary Todd Architecture
The client had a dated single storey building that occupied the whole site as a corner Café and Dairy. The client sought a new replacement building incorporating a Café, Dairy and 2 apartments if possible, which required resource consent for commercial uses in a residential zone. The development was desired to be consistent with the surrounding buildings and maximise the best use of the site and return on client investment adjacent the Otago Polytechnic Campus. The overall styling was to include residential and industrial character.
Creative Solution & Design Features
The solution is a new mixed-use building with four separate tenancies. Café, Dairy, shared Service Court and Verandas plus two apartment entries at ground level is to improve the existing business and provide a more financially sustainable model with extended operating hours and a new image. Rental apartments occupy middle and upper level with outdoor decks to maximise the permitted bulk and location planning rules via a limited notified application involving approval from adjacent neighbours. The three-storey design successfully reinforces the urban grid of the street corner in scale with the larger surrounding tertiary buildings.
A 4m industrial grid of black steel portal frames is expressed on the interior and exterior. Cedar cladding, timber decking and interior joinery, polished concrete floors and stairs, grey and white tiling, charcoal and white paint, black steel and aluminium cladding with extensive glazed joinery all combine to provide a durable, low maintenance residential scale to the mixed commercial uses that have been well received and patronised by the public to the delight of the client.
Project details
Completion: 2018
Location: Dunedin