Keep your head in the clouds in a property with its heart in the city
The house-like proportions at an exceptional vantage point make this apartment a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for families set on luxury
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It’s hard to think of another city in the world that offers the kind of diversity and amenity that Sydney delivers. While many focus on the stunning harbour, there’s a myriad of beautiful waterways providing a connection to the natural environment while also keeping a finger on the pulse of a vibrant city centre.
This recently completed penthouse apartment on the Parramatta River in the heart of Sydney’s second major city is a perfect example of luxury living. Located in The Lennox, a 46-storey apartment building designed by Marchese Partners and JPW Architects, the property at 4602/12 Philip Street, Parramatta has four bedrooms and three bathrooms, with 3m-high ceilings adding to the sense of space and gracious comfort.
The open plan living and dining area features timber floors laid in a chevron pattern and leads onto an exceptionally well-equipped kitchen featuring Gaggenau appliances, a built-in coffee machine, a Vintec wine fridge and Zip hot and cold tap.
A generous, north east facing outdoor living area is accessible via bi-fold doors leading off the living area, offering commanding views of the surrounding area. The house-like proportions of the apartment allow for distinct sleeping and living zones, with three of the four bedrooms separated by the dedicated home office space. A fourth bedroom on the other side of the living area would be ideal for visiting guests.
In addition to the spacious apartment, the property is being sold with secure parking for three cars. There is also access to a 24-hour concierge service, as well as a 20m heated swimming pool, a fully equipped gym and a dedicated function room.
Address: 4602/12 Philip Street, Parramatta
Price guide: $4 million
Agent: Sunny Gandhi sunnyg@theagency.com.au 0421 336 689
Inspection: By appointment
Consumers are going to gravitate toward applications powered by the buzzy new technology, analyst Michael Wolf predicts
Chris Dixon, a partner who led the charge, says he has a ‘very long-term horizon’
A new AI-driven account by leading landscape architect Jon Hazelwood pushes the boundaries on the role of ‘complex nature’ in the future of our cities
2 min
Drifts of ground cover plants and wildflowers along the steps of the Sydney Opera House, traffic obscured by meadow-like planting and kangaroos pausing on city streets.
This is the way our cities could be, as imagined by landscape architect Jon Hazelwood, principal at multi-disciplinary architectural firm Hassell. He has been exploring the possibilities of rewilding urban spaces using AI for his Instagram account, Naturopolis_ai with visually arresting outcomes.
“It took me a few weeks to get interesting results,” he said. “I really like the ephemeral nature of the images — you will never see it again and none of those plants are real.
“The AI engine makes an approximation of a grevillea.”
Hazelwood chose some of the most iconic locations in Australia, including the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, as well as international cities such as Paris and London, to demonstrate the impact of untamed green spaces on streetscapes, plazas and public space.
He said he hopes to provoke a conversation about the artificial separation between our cities and the broader environment, exploring ways to break down the barriers and promote biodiversity.
“A lot of the planning (for public spaces) is very limited,” Hazelwood said. “There are 110,000 species of plants in Australia and we probably use about 12 in our (public) planting schemes.
“Often it’s for practical reasons because they’re tough and drought tolerant — but it’s not the whole story.”
Hazelwood pointed to the work of UK landscape architect Prof Nigel Dunnett, who has championed wild garden design in urban spaces. He has drawn interest in recent years for his work transforming the brutalist apartment block at the Barbican in London into a meadow-like environment with diverse plantings of grasses and perennials.
Hazelwood said it is this kind of ‘complex nature’ that is required for cities to thrive into the future, but it can be hard to convince planners and developers of the benefits.
“We have been doing a lot of work on how we get complex nature because complexity of species drives biodiversity,” he said.
“But when we try to propose the space the questions are: how are we going to maintain it? Where is the lawn?
“A lot of our work is demonstrating you can get those things and still provide a complex environment.”
At the moment, Hassell together with the University of Melbourne is trialling options at the Hills Showground Metro Station in Sydney, where the remaining ground level planting has been replaced with more than 100 different species of plants and flowers to encourage diversity without the need for regular maintenance. But more needs to be done, Hazelwood said.
“It needs bottom-up change,” he said. ““There is work being done at government level around nature positive cities, but equally there needs to be changes in the range of plants that nurseries grow, and in the way our city landscapes are maintained and managed.”
And there’s no AI option for that.
Consumers are going to gravitate toward applications powered by the buzzy new technology, analyst Michael Wolf predicts
Chris Dixon, a partner who led the charge, says he has a ‘very long-term horizon’
