Casba

Casba is an exercise in renewal and infill. Balancing heritage considerations of the former warehouse precinct with the growing expectations of inner city living environments. There are 65 residential apartments with a mix of 1, 2 and 3 bedroom dwellings, and 5,000 sqm of ground level retail space. At an urban scale the project is organised around three principal ideas: • a collection of communal publicly accessible courtyards, • a pedestrian through site link, & • the delivery of engaged and active street edges. Through the renewal of this former light industrial neighbourhood, the vision for the Danks Street precinct is as a place of medium density living with ground level retail; providing amenity for the immediate residents, the surrounding Surry Hills and Redfern communities and the broader Sydney population. The injection of both retail and residential uses ensures active street environments across approximately 18 hours a day, delivering active and safe street environments and diverse shopping, cultural and commercial opportunities. This is dissimilar to the surrounding Victorian era terrace built form which is typified by large expanses of single dwellings, with the occasional corner shop, or the monoculture of the 60’s social housing towers which are devoid of ground level amenity and activity. Casba delivers an integrated vertical mix of uses, necessary for the future of Sydney development if housing and density targets are to be achieved. At the street edges the buildings actively define the public domain, providing strong and pedestrian scaled built form. Made predominantly of brick the buildings engage with the streets through open balconies and north facing private open spaces while still providing privacy and intimacy through solid balcony up stands - enabling a level of retreat for the individual residents.