Part of a regenerated inner-city precinct, 8 Loftus Street is a masterful urban housing proposition. The project ameliorates a complex site through a series of restrained and carefully observed spatial moves. Its urban sophistication is coupled with a remarkable attention to detail.

At street level, the bipartite plan affords an arcade, providing permeability, civic intrigue and a linkage through to Loftus Lane, while simultaneously calibrating the floorplate into two “neighbourhoods.” This permeability is carried through the public and retail functions on the first two floors; above this, 31 apartments are layered. The apartment interiors are subtle and restrained; each is afforded a garden terrace, and daylight to all living areas and bedrooms.

The mass of the upper floors responds sensitively to the adjacent context and the urban envelope, preserving formal relations and ensuring that sunlight to the nearby Macquarie Place Park is not compromised. The roof gardens simultaneously shroud services, while offering amenity and recreation to residents in the form of undulating gardens, contoured to allow intimate or larger social gatherings.

Soft grey brick, perforated sheetmetal screens and steel datums articulate the facade, creating fine contours in dialogue with the stone friezes of the adjacent fabric. Veiling elements are deployed with characteristic finesse, both articulating the life of the facade and modulating the interior environment. The composition is subtle, beautiful and highly attenuated to its setting.

Works of this clarity are rare and cannot be executed without unusual dedication, patience and tenacity. Commensurate quality is often only achieved in the domestic realm; Studio Bright has stepped out of this private sphere and into the civic scale without diluting its care and attention to the craft of making buildings. Everything about 8 Loftus Street is responsive, considered and resolved, making it deserving of this highest recognition.