Transforming the Gold Coast

WORDS: Perry Just -Principle & Managing Director at Spatium Architects - Joe Snell Director - Studio Snell Architects & Regional Chair - Gold Coast & Northern Rivers PHOTOGRAPHY Supplied

From its humble beginnings as a holiday destination, this city has continued to attract millions of visitors, many of whom now call the Gold Coast home.

Those of us lucky enough to have spent a long time living on the Gold Coast have witnessed the significant transformation of our city. With the influx of new residents, the Gold Coast has grown and matured with investment in infrastructure and in the arts, lifestyle and entertainment facilities. It is no longer perceived as only a holiday destination with sandy beaches, great climate and a beautiful hinterland.

An important aspect of any city is the quality of the built environment, the quality of the parks, the quality of the architecture and the public spaces created in between. On average, we spend more than 80% of our lifetime within or around buildings although we rarely think about this, so it stands to reason that the quality of the built environment we live in should be carefully designed to promote our well-being and contribute to the greater community.

High-rise buildings are like cities in many ways. They are made up of many individual dwellings connected by vertical transportation and shared communal spaces. They are highly complex structures (almost machines) requiring detailed knowledge of the way they are designed, the way they are procured and the way they are serviced and built. It takes close collaboration between developers, authorities, builders and professional consultants to achieve great outcomes.

Just like cities, a great building cannot be measured by any one particular aspect. A great building must achieve a careful balance of numerous constraints and requirements ranging from economic viability to technical constraints, authority and legislative regulations, end-user requirements, aesthetics and its impact and contribution to the wider community to name but a few.

Many professional consultants such as structural engineers, services consultants, landscape designers and dozens more professionals are required to design and document within their area of expertise, but there is one profession that is tasked with weaving the complex set of requirements and constraints into a beautiful building form with comfortable dwelling spaces and great communal areas and that is the role of the Architect.

In fact, the more challenging the economic times the more valuable the role of the Architect, as it is the only profession able to value manage a project and maintain its vision and positive contribution to its occupants and society.

Architects need to undertake 5 years (10 semesters) of tertiary education followed by 2 years of practical experience before being allowed to sit the Board of Architects registration exam to become qualified Architects. They are also required to further their education annually in order to maintain their registration. Architects are passionate professionals, but their role is often not clearly understood. Architects are not engaged to simply produce drawings, they are engaged to find balanced outcomes to a complex set of requirements and constraints. The act of drawing is merely a means of communicating what has been resolved. They are uniquely qualified to find beautiful solutions to complex problems.

With the growth and maturing of our city, the boom-and-bust property cycle of the past has been replaced by a general housing shortage driving development. Today developers are facing new problems in the form of ever-increasing construction costs and architects are working harder than ever to find economical solutions without losing sight of the aim to create beautiful living environments and communities to house a burgeoning population and contribute to the city’s vibrancy and character.

The process of creating these high-rise buildings is a long and arduous process taking many  years, much dedication, passion and experience. For all these reasons we must support, encourage and celebrate good architecture and the large teams of developers, authorities and professionals who create it.

An investment in good architecture makes economic and social sense. An investment in Architecture is an investment in the city that will ultimately benefit all those lucky enough to call the Gold Coast home. In the following features we showcase some of the most outstanding architecturally designed Apartment Towers that our developers and architects are creating for our ever-evolving City.

Words: Perry Just -Principle & Managing Director at Spatium Architects

Joe Snell – Director – Studio Snell Architects & Regional Chair – Gold Coast & Northern Rivers – Australian Institute of Architects