Attachment 1B - Architects Design Statement.pdf

THE SITE

The site for a new smaller boutique hotel is adjacent and immediately to the north east of the existing
clubhouse and health and fitness centre, bounded also by Resort Drive which winds around the site from
the east to the north, the main entry drive to the bottom of the sand hill to the west and unusually an
odour contour emanating from the Noosa Sewage plant across Resort Drive and further to the north.
Currently 2 terraces of car parking and 2 terraces of Tennis courts have been cut into the hillside, but with
significant vegetation in between. The landscaping here has matured very well and provides a degree of
sun shading to the carpark and avoids the appearance of a series of open contiguous flat areas. Apart
from these sectional and planning constraints a 8 metre height contour above the extrapolated natural
ground level further controls the scale of development. A significant part of the client brief for this project
has been to design and integrate the new hotel development, notwithstanding its size compared to all
other buildings on the site, with the existing club house and health and fitness centre enabling its
operation and perception as all being part of a larger resort facility, including maintaining full access for all
existing Noosa Springs residents and the wider community as has always been the case.



DESIGN RESPONSE – BUILT FORM

The developing here presents a significant challenge, the site area is very constrained, vehicular access
from the other facilities is limited, the site is very steep and visible to a small part of the golf course and
some residences on the other side of the golf course. The development site is possibly visible within Lake
Weyba itself. The brief implies potentially bulkier buildings than have been built to date and the design
whilst negotiating all these planning constraints must also be imbued with a unique character to achieve a
quality rating which is attractive to guests all year round, notwithstanding that it is same distance from
the beach. The design proposed was developed from a rigorous analysis of the site, including views to and
from the site and the potential difficulties in offering convenient pedestrian access and departure for
guests. The desire to have a single address for the whole complex influenced the decision to maintain the
current beautifully tree lined drive and Porte Cochere, this is intuitive and avoids confusion. So, here is our
starting point for the guest experience. Whilst many different configurations of building and groups of
buildings were considered, it became obvious quite early that the focus of the hotel experience itself
needed to be a large central space with an integrated water and landscape design with a predominantly
northern aspect and that any buildings which encompassing this area should be of a smaller scale, and so
the key “parti” for the hotel is derived from the traditional hill village, where smaller buildings step up,
down and around a central community space which assists in creating community especially with dining
and entertaining integrated into this area, both inside and outside. Hotel operations for maximum
efficiency also influenced an easily navigable and legible, generally double sided corridor circulation with
elevators at key node points and access to natural light and views. The final built form proposed
dramatically breaks down the building into a series of linked smaller pavilions, which step up and around
the main ground level overlooking a large non regular shaped swimming pool offering a range of different
swimming and lounging experiences. The advantage of this approach was that we were also able to
minimise any excavation and make use of the existing terraces already created for the tennis courts.


[OCR of page images]
THE SITE

The site for a new smaller boutique hotel is adjacent and immediately to the north east of the existing
clubhouse and health and fitness centre, bounded also by Resort Drive which winds around the site from
the east to the north, the main entry drive to the bottom of the sand hill to the west and unusually an
odour contour emanating from the Noosa Sewage plant across Resort Drive and further to the north.
Currently 2 terraces of car parking and 2 terraces of Tennis courts have been cut into the hillside, but with
significant vegetation in between. The landscaping here has matured very well and provides a degree of
sun shading to the carpark and avoids the appearance of a series of open contiguous flat areas. Apart
from these sectional and planning constraints a 8 metre height contour above the extrapolated natural
ground level further controls the scale of development. A significant part of the client brief for this project
has been to design and integrate the new hotel development, notwithstanding its size compared to all
other buildings on the site, with the existing club house and health and fitness centre enabling its
operation and perception as all being part of a larger resort facility, including maintaining full access for all
existing Noosa Springs residents and the wider community as has always been the case.

DESIGN RESPONSE — BUILT FORM

The developing here presents a significant challenge, the site area is very constrained, vehicular access
from the other facilities is limited, the site is very steep and visible to a small part of the golf course and
some residences on the other side of the golf course. The development site is possibly visible within Lake
Weyba itself. The brief implies potentially bulkier buildings than have been built to date and the design
whilst negotiating all these planning constraints must also be imbued with a unique character to achieve a
quality rating which is attractive to guests all year round, notwithstanding that it is same distance from
the beach. The design proposed was developed from a rigorous analysis of the site, including views to and
from the site and the potential difficulties in offering convenient pedestrian access and departure for
guests. The desire to have a single address for the whole complex influenced the decision to maintain the
current beautifully tree lined drive and Porte Cochere, this is intuitive and avoids confusion. So, here is our
starting point for the guest experience. Whilst many different configurations of building and groups of
buildings were considered, it became obvious quite early that the focus of the hotel experience itself
needed to be a large central space with an integrated water and landscape design with a predominantly
northern aspect and that any buildings which encompassing this area should be of a smaller scale, and so
the key “parti” for the hotel is derived from the traditional hill village, where smaller buildings step up,
down and around a central community space which assists in creating community especially with dining
and entertaining integrated into this area, both inside and outside. Hotel operations for maximum
efficiency also influenced an easily navigable and legible, generally double sided corridor circulation with
elevators at key node points and access to natural light and views. The final built form proposed
dramatically breaks down the building into a series of linked smaller pavilions, which step up and around
the main ground level overlooking a large non regular shaped swimming pool offering a range of different
swimming and lounging experiences. The advantage of this approach was that we were also able to
minimise any excavation and make use of the existing terraces already created for the tennis courts.