8 Loftus Street is a component of a larger Masterplan for AMP Capital in Circular Quay, Sydney. Our new building contributes to a vibrant new precinct of fine-grain laneways and arcades. Two levels of retail spaces form a base for 31 apartments housed over six upper levels. An arcade marries the busy street to the inner laneway refuge, while upper-level shops lead the eye up to tucked-away spaces for exploration and respite. The building is capped by a recreational roof garden for the use of its residents.

Formally, the new building shifts and folds, fluidly responding to spatial influences and contextual constraints. Mass appears polished and ‘grounded away’ with setbacks swelling and receding, softening the transitions by gently sliding back from the street facade line.

Sitting against the Sydney sandstone, the choice of steel grey bricks has been made to contrast and sharpen appreciation of both materials. Solid brick panels, perforated brick screens, and black steel horizontal ribbon ledge elements alternate and interweave within a vertical organizational grid to lend the façade a woven fabric-like visual quality. Perforated, bronze anodized screens provide flexible sun shading and privacy to the apartments. The daily sliding and angling of the adjustable screens give an animated surface with a random undulating movement—a daytime and nighttime dance of fine-grain environmental adaptability.

Jury comment for the 2022 National Architecture Award, Frederick Romberg Award for Residential Architecture – Multiple Housing:

“Works of this clarity are rare and cannot be executed without unusual dedication, patience and tenacity. Commensurate quality is often only achieved in the domestic realm; Studio Bright has stepped out of this private sphere and into the civic scale without diluting its care and attention to the craft of making buildings. Everything about 8 Loftus Street is responsive, considered and resolved, making it deserving of this highest recognition.”

Jury comment for the 2022 National Architecture Award, Walter Burley Griffin Award for Urban Design:

“Quay Quarter Lanes masterfully captures the best of Sydney urbanism and succinctly creates a sensitive and confident city in microcosm.

Quay Quarter Lanes is a gift to the city of Sydney. We truly hope that such skillful interventions will continue in the future and act as a benchmark for projects in other cities.”