Angas Street Carpark and Office,
Adelaide

Inspired by an old leather couch, the articulation of building’s facade

A large, new hospital located in Angas Street, Adelaide produced a need for more parking spaces for the patients, visitors, and employees. 

From a functional point of view, the building Tectvs designed is very similar to its parking counterparts sprinkled throughout the CBD. The new car park would be made up of eight levels, seven levels of which to be used for parking. The ground floor has the entry, lifts and retail space, with frontage to Angas Street and importantly, to the new hospital.  Level eight has office space with magnificent views overlooking south-eastern Adelaide.

The new carpark has solid boundary walls on the east and south, and colour has been used to modulate the appearance of the wall. From street level, there is a canopy that envelopes the building, connecting the retail space back to the face brick adjacent to a heritage building. Visually from Angas Street, the canopy appears to retract into the car park facade. 

But then the magic happens as innovative architecture shines through! Tectvs designed a rippled, open mesh screen, a skin that envelopes the north and west walls of the building. It is evident to all that an old leather couch inspired the design, and the mesh facade has button-like disks pulled deeply back into it. The buttons create significant depth in the mesh screens, giving lively colour and shadow changes as the light moves from day to night. From a ‘green’ perspective, the mesh allows for airflow within the internal building. Its solar reduction properties mean a dramatic 75 percent reduction in solar gain, reducing heat transfer into the building significantly.