Campbell Street
by Milieu Property

Campbell Street is a collaboration between Milieu Property, DKO Architecture and SLAB Architecture that cleverly configures a 76 square-metre parcel of land into two light-filled, six-storey vertical dwellings.
Each terrace contains a basement lounge, ground-level garage, two bedrooms and roof-top terrace. Connecting each level is a striking steel and timber stair set against a light-well that spans the height of each property, allowing cross flow ventilation and natural light into the core of each dwelling.
The building’s exterior is wrapped in a pressed and perforated metal cladding, creating a jewelry –box like form. Operable screens open West to the street, allowing the building to not only change in external appearance but also adapt and evolve to the internal need of the residents.
The light through the perforations illuminate the interiors throughout the day with beautiful circular patterned shadow falls and inversely creates a lantern effect, softly lit in the street in the evening.
The strong exteriors were carried inside with the use of steel and raw concrete forms, but softened by the natural finishes of timber and stone. This allowed styling with cool tones, structured pieces and masculine aesthetics.
Smart storage solutions and integrated joinery have been included on every level. A laundry shoot was incorporated from the landing of each bedroom level connecting to the basement. While having fully operable doors to the base of the light well it allows for significant natural ventilation for clothes drying out of the weather.
The kitchen and living areas have multi-function design elements allowing reconfiguration through adaptable joinery pieces. A movable timber slab located on the kitchen table acts as both a perfect chopping block and extended bench space but can be removed to increase the dining capacity up to 8 people.
The arrangement of the levels was important to make the most of the building height and outlook. The living space, that typically forms part of the lower levels of townhouses was placed higher in the building to take advantage of the open outlook and privacy. This way it also allowed for a cohesive connection to the rooftop by aligning the social areas of the home together on the upper levels.
The project took inspiration from residential housing typologies in densely populated international cities where often buildings take up the entire site footprint or at least built to boundaries.
The livability of a vertical home is paramount, and the design philosophy was built around how you would interact with the building as a whole, but focus could also be broken down on a level basis
Using the space effectively, building to boundary to get the most out of a site for the benefit of the occupant was crucial, by including smart storage and adaptable furnishing pieces, but this was equally as important as the exterior.
Vertical living, whether it is one residence or part of a larger complex is inevitable for urban environments. The site at Campbell Street could have been adapted into one property with similar amenity, but through smart design and innovation, an additional residence was added, allowing someone else an opportunity to move into the area and live in an urban environment.
The particular area in which Campbell Street sits has an industrial / light commercial past, so the strong and bold design of the property was heavily influenced by this and is a striking addition to the neighbourhood that passersby can appreciate. Being tagged by graffiti only adds to it and is somewhat of an initiation into the area.
On the roof terrace, solar panels are discretely designed into the southern balustrade capturing most of the northern sunlight throughout the day.
To view more Milieu Property Inspired Architecture and Interior Design Archives head to their TLP Designer Profile.
Keep up to date with The Local Project’s latest interviews, project overviews, collections releases and more – view our TLP Articles & News.
Explore more design, interior & architecture archives in our TLP Archives Gallery.