Brick Inlay delivers a visually compelling and aesthetically harmonious façade in Geelong

Pivot House is a landmark building in Geelong’s urban landscape. Developed by Pellicano, this 17-storey building includes 87 self-contained apartments at Quest Geelong Central, capturing the region’s extended-stay corporate travel and local leisure market, and 63 build-to-rent dwellings at Pivot House Apartments on the upper floors, providing hotel-style long-term living for locals.

Designed by Peddle Thorp Architects (Peddle Thorp) and RPC Architects this striking development has all the hallmarks of a Quest and Pellicano property: comfort, functionality, aesthetic appeal and quality, blending comfort with modern amenities and facilities.

Pivot House integrates seamlessly with its urban surrounds and has strong aesthetic appeal care of a striking brick façade on the lower levels, paired with Hebel panels on the upper floors.

Peddle Thorp wanted brick to feature heavily in the palette to pay homage to the city’s architectural heritage, creating aesthetic harmony with the precinct, and to cultivate a warm and inviting presence for guests and the local community. More importantly, choosing brick was a nice reference to Frank and Nunzio Pellicano’s history as bricklayers. The brothers founded Pellicano in 1967 as a humble bricklaying business, which has now grown into an award-winning multi-disciplinary property and construction enterprise.

Socrati Seretis, Principal at Peddle Thorp, says the material palette was, “a good balance between strong aesthetic, functionality and durability (especially when we started to look at the Brick Inlay). It’s also quite welcoming and warm, so Pellicano and the planning authorities were very comfortable with it.”

For Peddle Thorp and RPC, being able to merge traditional and contemporary construction techniques was critical to realising their design. While the ground floors are laid in traditional Rustic Red bricks by Lawler Bricklaying, featuring striking hit and miss brick detailing, the upper brick floors are constructed off-site with Brick Inlay, containing matching Rustic Red brick tiles.

“Choosing Brick Inlay starts with the selection of bricks – for us, that’s the first indicator – you just find a quality of brick. And Robertson’s has a refined aesthetic. Then, of course, having the flexibility of having different ways of installing them, or using different systems, was great. At Quest there’s a hybrid use of materials, so working with Robertson’s was beneficial because we could match the brick tiles on the upper floors with solid bricks below,” Socrati explains.

In fact, RPC noted the speed of installation on site, reduction in Workplace Health and Safety issues, and increase in structural stability were key factors in selecting Brick Inlay, which is especially important when dealing with the wind loads on the upper floors.

To keep the brick language consistent throughout, the warmth of the Rustic Red bricks is carried internally, used on the lift well walls, inside the lower balconies, and on the rooftop terrace as wall seats.

Inside, the Geelong Quest Central serviced apartments range from studio, one, two, and three-bedrooms with balconies, fully equipped kitchens and laundry facilities. Amenities include a 24-hour front desk, shared lounge, fitness centre, business centre, conference room, three levels of basement parking, a café and retail spaces on the ground floor.

The 67 built-to-rent apartments at Pivot House are a mix of one-bedroom with one-bathroom, two-bedroom with two-bathrooms, and three-bedroom with two-bathrooms. Community amenities include a residents’ lounge, gym, fully landscaped rooftop retreat with BBQs and outdoor dining areas, yoga lawn and incredible views. Pellicano retained ownership of the Pivot House building on completion.

The entire project team is to be congratulated for delivering a standout landmark building in Geelong in what was a seamless collaboration to deliver it. For Peddle Thorp and RPC, the strong use of brick, particularly the Rustic Red bricks and brick tiles, makes this development a standout: “This is probably one of our earlier integrations of that type of brickwork in a large scale modern design. Visually, it’s a very compelling façade. It’s a balanced approach to modern construction challenges, and that’s how we could maintain that brickwork in the upper levels; it really is a nice merger of traditional and contemporary needs,” Socrati concludes.

Developer: Pellicano Living

Architect: Peddle Thorp Architects (design, DA), RPC Architect (interior design, documentation and delivery)

Product: Brick Inlay with Rustic Red brick tiles and Rustic Red bricks

Builder: Ireland Brown Construction

Bricklayer: Lawler Bricklaying

Precaster: Walker Panels

Photography: Trent Perrett