80 beautifully considered apartments crowned by a rooftop oasis sit above the reimagined Club Bondi Junction RSL and destination retail below. The Bond is located at the corner of Bronte Road and Ebley Street in Bondi Junction, approximately 6 kilometres from Sydney CBD. These residences will boast a landscaped communal rooftop offering panoramic views, creating a shared space for residents to enjoy. Beneath the new residences, a mixed-use podium will breathe new life into the area, preserving heritage façade elements while accommodating retail, club, and commercial functions.
The building’s dynamic footprints and highly sculpted form characterise its design. It makes a bold statement at the intersection and is a prominent gateway to Bondi Junction. Our design is an aesthetic response to the site’s complex and unique challenges.
The building’s highly articulated butterfly form creates a beautifully sculptured massing above the heritage and finer grain streetscape. An activated ground floor plane incorporates destination retail and public art. The building seamlessly integrates with its surroundings with an elegant and strong palette.
The upper apartment levels’ stepped and articulated volumetric composition serves multiple purposes on an urban scale. It helps transition the scale between the large format commercial core and the fine-grain heritage and residential streets, creating a harmonious blend within the streetscape. Additionally, our design allows for the heritage façade to be retained within the site, ensuring its presence is maintained amidst the new development.
The angular nature of the residential floorplates is strategic. They maximise available sunlight, promote cross ventilation, and frame stunning views across the site and within the apartments. Residents can expect corridors of Sydney Harbour views and expansive vistas of Centennial Park and Botany Bay to the South, enhancing the living experience within the building.
The two-storey podium, consolidated to cater primarily to the joint venture partner, Club Bondi Junction RSL, is a multifunctional space accommodating retail, commercial, and community uses. These include hospitality venues and function and event spaces, ensuring that the development enhances the existing use while contributing to the area’s vibrancy and meeting diverse community needs.
The podium’s ground floor is carefully designed to be activated, featuring destination retail outlets and public art installations. This revitalization transforms what was previously a neglected area of the urban core, breathing new life into the streetscape and enhancing the overall experience for pedestrians.
Our design approach emphasises strength and permeability, ensuring that the building maintains a strong street presence while being welcoming and accessible. Modern design elements, such as a strong vertical emphasis within the podium, are seamlessly incorporated into the structure. These elements complement and pay homage to the retained Victorian Italianate facade and its distinctive rusticated piers, honouring the area’s heritage while introducing a fresh contemporary aesthetic to the streetscape.
Overall, our elegant and robust design palette allows it to blend harmoniously with its surroundings, enriching the urban fabric of Bondi Junction and creating a distinct new community with separate retail and commercial offerings.
>> See more at The Bond Bondi Junction website
Alister leads the Living Environments team as a Principal in Architecture and Urban Design. His passion for design and leadership throughout Australia and the UK underpin his unique design approach, demonstrated by his extensive architectural and urban planning portfolio of complex, successful, and innovative projects, many of which are award-winning.
