The award-winning masterplanned community Banbury Village in Footscray is now complete. The centrepiece of this community is Botanica, a multi-residential building designed by Rothelowman.
Positioned at the heart of Banbury Village, Botanica has been designed to visually connect to the community’s public park as well as the building’s private landscaped courtyard.
“Our design for Botanica is a continuation of Banbury Village’s integrated streetscape, with generous outdoor living areas promoting interaction amongst residents, connecting the building to the adjacent urban space,” says Rothelowman principal Stuart Marsland.
“Being both an island site and the last element in a masterplanned neighbourhood, designing Botanica presented numerous exciting opportunities not often seen in urban apartment buildings.”
The four-storey building features three wings and a total 101 one and two bedroom apartments.
The northern wing is the main entry portal to the building and a statement element of Botanica.
“We envisaged the northern wing as a lively creature. It bends, cuts and steps from a grounded form in the west to an angled rising head floating above the eastern entry,” Marsland says.
“The texture and deep slices within the façade provide a contrast to the restraint elsewhere through the project.”
Clean, crisp, minimalistic architecture has been utilised for the courtyard along with the east and west wings.
The sharp white balcony details and recessive dark metal roofing complement the textured landscape of the ground level podium.
A subtle application of tyre tread marks on the external and internal surface treatments reference the site’s former origin as a tyre factory.
Cedar Woods state manager Patrick Archer commends Rothelowman’s design of Botanica.
“Botanica and the overall Banbury Village is a community defining project that we are extremely proud of, it is a shining example of a high quality urban development.”
Banbury Village is a $200 million project developed by Cedar Woods Properties involving the restoration of buildings once owned and operated by Sir Frank Beaurepaire and the redevelopment of the wider site. The project won best medium density development at the 2013 Victorian Urban Development Institute of Australia (UDIA).
