A playful, stacked exterior leads to clean lines and a muted colour palette inside Spectrum Apartments by Kavellaris Urban Design (KUD).

Located in the Melbourne suburb of Box Hill, this project is a five storey multi-residential structure that houses 71 apartments.

As the building is situated on a site with three frontages, it was crucial that the architecture address and activate all frontages while still maintaining a single architectural language. The focal point of the building is its northern elevation, which features what look like skewed, multi-coloured strips of building mass stacked on top of each other. According to the architect, the strips were designed to represent the cultural diversity of Box Hill, with the brightly-coloured fascia around the balconies adding a vibrant presence to the public realm.

To increase the building’s public amenity, internal circulation areas are open to the sky, acting as a “lung” to the development, says the architect. This “lung” also provides natural light and ventilation while allowing vegetation to populate the open atrium.

While the exterior is bold and eye-catching, the interior of the building has been kept simple with clean lines, classic materials and a muted colour palette. A “zig-zag” motif runs through the interior, providing a subtle link to the building’s exterior. This can be seen in recessed lighting in some public spaces, as well as in overhead storage cupboards in the apartments.

Completed in 2016, the building won a People’s Choice Award at the 2017 Built Environment Awards, and was highly commended in the Australian multi-residential architecture category of the 2014-2015 Asia Pacific Property Awards.