noosa-heads

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6.3                ALKIRA APARTMENTS
LOCATION                 31 Noosa Drive, Noosa Heads

TENURE                   Freehold. 2RP96970

DATES                    1997

DESCRIPTION              A two-storey reinforced concrete building, consisting of two three-bedroom apartments
                         and a penthouse.26
                         The building is an example of unit architecture that blends sensitively into the sloping
                         block on which the complex is built, and which complies artistically with Noosa Shire
                         Council’s height limit of twelve metres for the area. The site overlooks Hastings Street,
                         the Noosa River and Laguna Bay.
                         Innovative features of the design include a system of electronically operated louvres on
                         frames for the inaccessible high windows in the master bedroom, metal sunshades along
                         the northern windows and louvred ventilation panels in the bedroom corners (that avoid
                         the use of air-conditioning).
                         The apartments are a heavyweight construction of reinforced concrete. However, they
                         feature some aspects of Poole’s renowned lightweight houses including a curved exterior
                         stairwell to the penthouse housed in a semi-circular corrugated cladding.




6.3.1    BRIEF HISTORY
Alkira Apartments were designed by Noosa architect Gabriel Poole, and built in 1997. Poole is an internationally
respected architect and a winner of the Queensland Robin Dods Award in 1991, the National Robin Boyd Award in 1991
and the National Gold Medal award ‘...for his lifetime contribution to Australian architecture’ in 1998. The design
incorporates two three-bedroom apartments and an owner’s penthouse.
6.3.2    HISTORICAL THEMES
Not applicable.
6.3.3    POTENTIAL SIGNIFICANCE
The building is of architectural and aesthetic significance because of its association with renowned architect, Gabriel
Poole and the development of the regional ‘Sunshine Coast School of Architecture’.
It is recommended that Noosa Shire Council consider assessment criteria d and e based on the Environmental
Protection Agency’s Guidelines for Historical and Indigenous Cultural Heritage Management, dated 2001, as relevant to
this place.
6.3.4    INTEGRITY
The integrity of Alkira Apartments has been maintained.

26
  For photographs of Alkira Apartments see Walker, B Gabriel Poole Space in which the soul can Play, Noosa, Visionary Press, 1998,
pp. 108-111.