A new apartment block in Melbourne has been designed with a striking exterior that sets it apart from the surrounding residential area. The Cirqua Apartments are located in the Ivanhoe East suburb of Melbourne, and their facade is made up of a series of visually arresting circular openings reminiscent of huge portholes. The six gigantic windows are staggered across the length and height of the building’s front face and conceal the 44 residential units within. Designed by the local firm BKK Architects, the Cirqua Apartments make the most of a complicated site that had previously denied them planning permission on multiple occasions. The new building resolves the issue posed by the existence of two properties on the plot and combines them in a single structure, consolidating the block. Another major factor in determining the building’s arrangement was overcoming an extreme level change on the site, which came in the form of a steep slope and required expert navigation on the architects’ part.
The facade performs a number of services for the 44-unit complex. It acts as the project’s main conceptual anchor and serves to conceal its central volumes, which are nicely hidden behind by an exterior set of staggered boxes with huge openings in their fronts. The architects explain, “The building facades are highly articulated to reduce the overall building’s mass and present a smaller scale. The design draws on the materiality and expression of lo...