St Joseph is a luxury residential development in suburb of Melbourne that was designed by KUD to create future heritage for the next generation on the historical site.

Architect: KUD

Location: Abbottsford, VIC, Australia

Completed: 2016

From the architects: Formally the grounds for the Saint Joseph’s Technical School dating back to the late 1800’s the St. Joseph project is a luxury residential development situated in Abbottsford, Victoria. Due to its historical significance the site has become part of the cultural landscape within the area, demanding a highly responsive and respectful design outcome. Our primary objective was to incorporate the critical components of school’s culture and history as a celebration and balance of the past and the future – creating ‘future heritage’ for the next generation. We were interested in exploring ways to interpret and represent the critical ‘story’ that created the culture and history of St Joseph’s Technical School.

After examining the school’s historical records, we carefully selected historical photographs that best captured the schools culture and incorporated the narratives within the visual content into the architectural response. The design intent was to recreate multiple simultaneous layers of history within the articulated screens that wrap around the street frontage facades. The faceted panels create a “Lenticular Image”; an optical phenomenon whereby singular segments of an image converge at specific points of view to recreate the completed image. The observer can view multiple images to a given surface by changing their position.

The images are transferred into the facade by two distinct yet complementary methods. The first method is perforating anodised aluminium sheets whilst the second is and embossed double-anodising aluminium sheets which introduces depth into the surface of the material. Each method is assigned to each opposing direction, creating a highly articulated and abstracted outcome.