This early 20th century industrial paper mill building, named after the Fourdrinier machine, is now repurposed for residential use. Remembering the site as a place where mill workers converged, the building celebrates a sense of community.
Client
Location
The Traditional Custodians of this land
Site Area
Gross Floor Area / NSA
Total Apartments
Total Lofts
Services
Interior Design
Original materials with contemporary intervention
The eastern elevation of Fourdrinier House strengthens the references to paper manufacturing with the façade’s concrete drum-like rollers alluding not only to the site’s history, but also the great Jazz Moderne architecture of this period from the 1920s and ‘30s from this period.
“Buildings by Technē are socially, historically and culturally sensitive.”
– Sebnem MacDonald, Associate (Architecture)
Fourdrinier House includes high ceilings of up to three metres in living areas, concrete ceilings and wired timber floors, creating an industrial aesthetic one could easily find in SoHo, New York. Stainless steel kitchen benches and expressed brick walls add to this ambience.
NYC brownstone charm
These two-storey, loft-style apartments have two distinct styles. The lower apartments evoke the sense of a New York brownstone, with their elevated brick terrace entrance that is connected to the Paper Trail walkway.
While the upper level lofts aren’t as connected to the Paper Trail, they benefit from their own rooftop terraces. Complete with raw industrial finishes, including large steel porthole windows in some, there’s a strong point of difference in this offering.
Copper-hued perforated aluminium panels loosely referencing paper production.
Concrete drum-like rollers alluding to the site's history and jazz Moderne architecture.