Why the team behind Encore 1788 in Sydney’s Double Bay believe it surpasses all others
The 15 Bates Smart-designed apartments at Encore 1788 in Double Bay exude sophistication and a feeling of indulgence.
As reported by Margaret Quilter | Full story here
Fashionable Double Bay’s charm and sophistication goes hand-in-hand with its picture-perfect harbour-side locale. The sought-after suburb is known for its high-end designer stores, deluge of fine dining restaurants and on-trend bars and cafes. Yet, it is the blend of heritage architecture and contemporary design that is perhaps most highly prized.
“Double Bay has gone through a complete rejuvenation from where it was ten years ago. There is certainly a richness in [food and beverage] and retail culture, and now more residential living in terms of apartments,” explains Brenton Smith, director of highly celebrated Australian architecture firm Bates Smart.
“The whole area is littered with beautiful old art deco and apartment buildings of various sizes and scales, but all around that six-level height. With this project, we wanted to craft a building that complimented the streetscape and responded to the scale of high-end purchasers,” Smith says.
Encore 1788 is Double Bay’s newest apartment development by SJD Property Group – part two of the recently completed development, 1788, both of which are Bates Smart-designed buildings. Featuring 15 apartments, Encore 1788 is inspired by the 1920s art deco architecture that’s prevalent throughout the area, all without compromising on high-end amenities.
“Luxury is about a building of scale, craft and sculpture that addresses the street beautifully and elegantly but also how downsizers, people who have come out of big houses, want to live,” says Smith.
“While we can design spaces that people want to aspire to, they also have to be able to create a home. It has to be elegant, highly resolved, beautifully detailed and have a certain quality, but not to the point where you tell them how to live.”
Complete with curves, marble, wide timber flooring and rounded coffered ceilings synonymous with the art deco era, Encore 1788 creates an atmosphere of sophistication and indulgence.
“We wanted to bring the sculpture of the building into the interior in terms of the materiality and the high level of details throughout the project,” explains Sun Mi Kang, associate for Bates Smart and project lead on Encore 1788.
The prestigious apartments have a very intimate arrival point with timeless elegance in its material palette – soft, distinctive marble that will last a lifetime and burnished bronze that sits within the stone, timber, veneer, tinted glass and bespoke joinery. It’s a palette that’s not necessarily ‘on trend’ but one where the interiors will look as elegant in 50 years as they do today.
“From the moment you arrive in the lobby, the personalisation and sophistication are evident – we have high-quality materials and customised detail throughout. We have Wolf and SubZero appliances and Italian marble, and the joinery detailing is incredibly well resolved,” Mi Kang says.
“The sequence of the formality of arriving and the way the kitchen addresses the dining and the living space, all of these have been based on old principles of planning but in a more contemporary manner.”
The handcrafted marble, bronze, timber and glass kitchens are soft and curvaceous and integrate effortlessly with the living spaces, with subtle hints of art deco design. The bathrooms with handcrafted, freestanding baths, underfoot heated stone, integrated marble and LED lighting provide a sanctum.
“This is one of those unusual projects where we, more often than not, end up designing bespoke joinery outcomes for the purchaser. From a developer’s point of view, SJD Property Group is incredibly good at working with their clients to create individually tailored outcomes that are still in the context of the original design concept,” says Smith.
“That level of collaboration where you sit down with the purchaser, go through the kitchen, and walk-in wardrobe detailing. There is a level of intimacy and bespoke design that comes with these projects. Our approach has always been to craft something that responds to the calibre of people who buy them.”
Encore 1788 is currently selling off-the-plan. To learn more about the development, visit the Domain listing or encore1788.com.au.