6 - Huapai Commercial Development



We believe the key to this office / retail development’s success is the ability to actively encourage both locals and passing motorists into the precinct, offering an array of local services. It needs to entice, to hold and to offer a level of amenity that supports commercial and social needs while contributing to the local and wider good through sustainable means.

The building is located on the southern side of the site close to the main road to best address the corner in a natural ‘L’ shape, opening up the northern portion to the sun and for user’s enjoyment. The ‘L’ shape provides great visibility to motorists and pedestrians yet inherently protects and buffers the inner northern courtyard from the main road noise. The corner building is the focal point, slightly larger in form with two wings continuing down each road frontage. These have subtle curves in plan and the longer wing is split –almost centrally to both protect the established tree and allow a view through to the north with peeps to the courtyard with a visual connection both on and off the site. The second portion of the building (wing) is off-set to the road from the curved linear axis to afford a second visual frontage to passing motorists while accentuating the differences between the building blocks and future staging. The pedestrian link runs along the southern road front then conveniently connects through to the north and unites the two forms.
The split is an important part of the planning as it is intended to have a café located to one side to create activity and movement between the main road and courtyard faces, with café tables, chairs and umbrellas offering the clue to it’s use and enticement of passer-by’s.
Broken into smaller forms allows a comfortable level of ‘complexity’ and understanding of the elements and parts, in keeping with the scale and form of the village buildings. It is important for the building forms to not be monolithic, but scaled appropriately for their location and the tenancy uses.

The selection of materials conceptually supports the primary design characteristics local rural character, scale and potential use of the tenancies, is relatively synonymous with the region and its activities.
The concept explores the ‘modern rural’ building form and elements recognised in the region. Materials are vertical timber and horizontal corrugated iron overlaid with screening at the upper levels. The cladding is reminiscent of local timber barns and farm structures, while the banding connects loosely with wine barrel steel bands wrapping the timber wine barrel, yet is reminiscent too of wooden pallets and packaging used in horticultural product handling.
The shop fronts below are glazed and ‘light-weight’ offering as much opportunity to display and focus their wares. They are both practical –important for the shop presentation, while conceptually reducing the impact of the base to amplify the effect of the pixellated grape-vine screen over. In places, the base building connect to the ground, as an overlay of the rural buildings. Loosely, there is also a ‘western’ town connection, almost the stage frontage and simple buildings beyond.

The screens over are an interpretation of the grape vines hanging ready for a late harvest. The grapes and vines are a ‘pixellated’ screen of varying densities and opaqueness, reflecting the randomness of nature. The idea is to visually reduce the building form, provide sun screening and offer a form that will become recognisable in the area, because it is from here that the concept was inspired. The materials selected for the screen are perforated anodised aluminium of varying metallic earthy tonings –from browns, warm greys and greens, to silver tones. These are an interpretive approach, reflecting a modern take of the materials of traditional rural buildings around. The regular perforations of the panels are varied in size from panel to panel, from colour to colour to allow different intensities of light through, views out and lightness of material. The intensity is the greatest at the top and lightens lower down where there are random panels missing to provide light and outlook. The intention is to pick up on the variety of colour tonings of the grape leaves, reflecting the changing season, and openness and density of the grape vine, which in turn provides shading to the building and it’s inhabitants similar to the grape vine in the field creating it’s own micro-climate below. The panels are supported on vertical rails conceptually aligning with the post and wire supports of the vineyard.
Signage is intended to be controlled but considered an important feature of the design, in creating an impact that again mimics the ‘branding’ of pallets and produce boxes. It will be simple and effective, allowing for a variety of styles and colours.

Cars have been removed as far from the building as possible to create a pedestrian precinct adjacent to the building. Parking requirements of course have been considered to ensure compliance and ease of access for everybody.
Landscaping is fully integrated into the design picking up on the horticultural-viticultural theme. Climbers will be grown up the posts reflecting the grapes on the southern side while rows of plants imitate crop-fields.