The result is an activated mixed-use development at a key transition site between Bondi Junction’s high-density commercial core and low-rise residential fringe.

The form is articulated as a ‘village’ of buildings that vary in height and scale in response to their context. Along Ebley Street, the form responds to the width of the existing hotel. Along MacKenzie Street, the form steps down to meet the scale of the neighbouring terraces. The rooftop level is setback along both streets to reduce visual bulk.

The upper ground level comprises the renovated hotel, a small bottle shop, an additional retail tenancy on the corner of Ebley and MacKenzie Streets, and the apartment lobby entry. As the site falls away along MacKenzie Street, apartments are located over the lobby and retail spaces.

At the rear is a communal garden for residents, designed with soft planted edges to ensure privacy to the existing terrace housing and gardens to the south. The apartment building massing around the communal garden has been sculpted to create a lower scale to the garden and maximise the solar access to adjoining residences.

A single, efficient compact core serves the residential building. The layout has been designed to maximise the number of north-facing apartments. A 2m wide ‘slot’ in the building on MacKenzie Street provides cross ventilation to adjacent single-aspect apartments as well as articulation in the building form.

A new lift and stair services the boutique accommodation level. The hotel rooms are renovated with new ensuites and fitout throughout.

Brick is the focus of the material palette, drawing on the residential quality of the surrounding context. The primary material for the residential component is a white brick with white mortar to provide a character that transitions between the terrace houses to the south and the commercial buildings to the north. The brick forms are punched with a black metal-framed box with alternating recessive and projecting hoods. Integrated planter boxes within the balcony hoods soften the building’s edge and provide privacy.

The facade of the hotel is an elegant black with subtle variations of textured materials. A lightweight black vertical zinc cladding is proposed for the recessive top set-back levels.