With The Briscoe by Kinleaf, architects Rothelowman sought to design a build-to-rent multi-residential complex with beautiful amenities, as well as rental and environmental sustainability for its long-term tenants.
Australian renters are currently facing all-time high rents and record-low housing vacancy rates. In the thick of a severe housing affordability crisis, property experts have identified the build-to-rent (BTR) sector as one key component that could help alleviate the crisis.
BTR is a housing model designed specifically for renting under single ownership, rather than for sale. A burgeoning model in Australia but more established in places like the UK, BTR has the potential to increase our rental supply – particularly long-term rental options – and the diversity of housing choice.
Real estate consultancy Knight Frank estimated 8350 dedicated BTR apartments were under construction in Australia in September 2023, and a further 12,900 units were approved for development in the near term, with the pipeline “most advanced” in Melbourne and Brisbane.
The Briscoe by Kinleaf is one of those BTR multi-residential complexes, which launched in February 2024 in West Melbourne. Everything within the building – including a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, a gymnasium, resident’s lounge and business centre – is for rent under ownership by developer Sentinel and its on-site property management platform Kinleaf. The Briscoe also features a rooftop terrace and a landscaped green central courtyard.
Sentinel engaged Rothelowman for the architecture and interior design of its third BTR apartment complex in Australia. The Briscoe’s ambition and the pressure on this new paradigm to be successful in Australia encouraged Rothelowman to find a “better way” of creating multi-density city living, says principal Jonothan Cowle.
“Part of the brief was a promise that we had to make as the architects to step up to the level of the opportunity, to actually make sure this project sets itself as a model that others should emulate,” Cowle says.
Cowle’s team received instructions to design purpose-built rental accommodation in a city-fringe location. According to Sentinel Australia’s managing director Keith Lucas, the West Melbourne site is “extremely well located”. It’s close to North Melbourne and Southern Cross train stations, less than 10 minutes by bike from the centre of the CBD, and captures skyline views from a low-rise, medium-density community.
“These projects remind us of what assets we actually do have and how beautiful our city really is,” Cowle says.
The brief called for respect not only to the existing fabric of the neighbourhood, but also the heritage of the original factory.
This adaptive reuse project draws inspiration from the site’s former life as an iron yard owned by a Victorian-era hardware firm, Briscoe & Company Limited. Rothelowman designed four storeys inside of the original three-storey warehouse to take advantage of the existing height and added two more on top.
Sections of the building’s heritage façade and art deco signage were restored throughout the construction process, with the original brickwork also salvaged for inside the completed building. Overall, the design combines Art Deco elegance with industrial grit and spaciousness.
“The project has a beautiful layered approach – a ‘building-within-a-building’. In an architectural and interior design sense, we often talk about ‘layering as luxury’,” Cowle explains.
He says picturesque interior spaces that “enclose” their residents can create a sense of security and prestige. In the case of The Briscoe, “you’re not just sitting in a glass box with your living room on the edge of a street – there’s this gentle buffer” at the threshold.
“Even if you’re on level four behind the heritage façade, you still have this courtyard experience to the outside world, which is a really beautiful layering,” he says.
This layering effect is repeated in the internal courtyard.
“It’s like a giant Roman villa, in a sense, with this romantic interior courtyard that gives you that engagement with the past and the storytelling of the aesthetics.”
This supports another crucial element of Sentinel’s brief: to create opportunities for community engagement both within the building and without.
“It feels like a much more prestigious and dignified space for people to dwell,” Cowle says.
The final key requirement of Sentinel’s brief was sustainability. The Briscoe is targeting benchmarks including carbon neutral certification from Climate Active and a 5-Star Green Star rating from the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA).
The project is currently registered with the GBCA and is awaiting As Built certifications. So far, The Briscoe has achieved an 8 Star NatHERS energy rating. Fifty percent of the base building electricity supply is GreenPower. Additionally, the building has a 15 kW solar array that generates renewable energy on site, further reducing the building’s reliance on the grid for its energy supply.
“The ambition is only getting higher with Green Star ratings and sustainability with each new project,” Cowle says. “I think one of the great advantages of the build-to-rent space – similar to other projects that are held in my mind – [is] these goals are actually easier to achieve. There’s much more control over operations but also over strategy – how the project is managed and then inhabited. You can be a bit more ambitious which is really interesting and exciting.”
BTR, as a model, can change market expectations in the build-to-sell sector and housing in general, says Cowle. This is because it demonstrates what’s possible in terms of longevity. The way interiors are detailed and joinery is made can be beautiful and, in simple terms, “built to last”.
“Purchasers will start asking different questions and realise that, within apartment design, there’s a lot more scope for quality than perhaps people had anticipated,” he says.
Photography supplied by Neue Media.
Read about how Aqualand has redefined multi-residential living for Sydneysiders.