![Book Flatlay Cover Front Transparent Trio[1]](https://d31dpzy4bseog7.cloudfront.net/media/2024/06/07080212/Book_Flatlay_Cover_Front_Transparent_Trio1.png)
Dynamic Living – 424 Malvern Road by John Wardle Architects
Though the home is a solid structure, it is always in motion. Through the activity of our lives, windows open and close, curtains dance across their tracks and doors swing back and forth as we leave and return. John Wardle Architects takes this concept to a new level with 424 Malvern Road, designing a mixed-use apartment and retail building whose otherwise muted façade is in constant flux in response to its occupants – a living dynamo echoing the bustle of the busy Prahran street below.
424 Malvern Road expertly balances eye-catching detail with quiet simplicity. The five-storey form undulates with obtuse angles, from the inwardly-pointing eaves that frame each level to the sloping windowsills on the brick-lined podium at ground floor – subtle accents that draw the eye in without distracting from the overall design. The initial brick structure ceases after the second level, trading-in the solid square form for lively twists and turns, appearing essentially as three stacked concrete levels akin to a monochromatic Rubik’s Cube mid twist. These levels are wrapped by a skin of fine steel mesh, offering privacy and shade for the inhabitants. It’s this skin that enlivens the building, as some panels are on horizontal tracks that slide while other panels fold up vertically or to the side, retreating to reveal balconies and large windows in a seemingly endless configuration across the levels and between the apartments, meaning that 424 will never look the same from one day to the next.
The dynamic activity represented by the outside of the building dissipates into quiet when one enters the individual apartments, the forthright angles of the exterior softening to long straight lines and occasional curves. Formed concrete columns and ceilings that would otherwise suggest a cold brutalism are warmed by timber lining and blackbutt floorboards, invoking instead a sense of peace and stability. A modernist influence continues throughout; floor-to-ceiling windows abut honest materials, united and contemporised by high thermally-performing timber window frames. From afar, restraint typifies the interior design of the eight apartments, but on closer inspection, one notices expertly crafted details in the timber and metalwork, the signature of a John Wardle Architects design. Notable examples of this are the finely softened edges of the timber joinery and the floating shelves in the kitchen, elegantly folded up and over supporting rods that would suggest a draped towel – if one didn’t know it was steel.
On entering through the ground floor, one is met by a vibrant blue wall and a portal window protruding forward, the arching shape reminiscent of the front vent of a Bugatti – a reference to the historical automobile industry at the site. Through the portal, the inner mechanics of a triple-height car stacker storage system are visible, as though looking through the vent to the engine inside. Exiting and glancing back from the street, the defining feature is the towering steelwork and a guillotine window jutting upwards, revealing a two-storey void that lights the retail space. Appropriately enough, this space is occupied by an art gallery, Otomys, and one might find oneself thinking that the building itself would qualify for exhibition here.
At a glance, the transient variability of the building’s façade draws you in, so in opposition is it to the familiar stability of other multi-storey buildings that one cannot help being compelled. A dance partner in tune to the step of its occupants, 424 Malvern Road dynamically expresses the idea of what it means for a building to be lived in.
