About the project
A short walk from the vibrant heart of Burleigh’s main retail center, along Goodwin Terrace, rests the heritage listed De-Luxe Theatre. The existing building is enduring landmark where local residents and holiday makers have been gathering since 1930.
With a story spanning nearly a century the building has been reimagined a number of times, responding to the ever-changing social needs. As modern picture theatre and dance hall, apartments, open-air cinema and an arcade, the De-Luxe building fabric has been marked by time and endured, becoming a landmark for the Burleigh community.
In response to growing housing demands and the changing patterns of living along the coast, De-Luxe is again being reinvented to provide luxury residential apartments. Importantly, this development acknowledges and enhances the significant local heritage of this site. The retained De-Luxe built form provides a central entry to the new ground floor retail and residential apartment lobbies. The new podium responds to the retained heritage building in scale and materiality and includes a new western colonnade of brick piers referencing the former building. The story of the De-Luxe building is shared in a series of interpretative devices providing an opportunity for the community to engage with shared Burleigh memories.
Design strategy
The original 1930s intent of the building as a modern picture theatre has inspired the architecture and intricate detailing found within each apartment. The De-Luxe theatre was characterised by a framed stage, a heavy draping curtain, lights strung in an ellipsoidal arrangement and a central performer or object. The forms and sequence of these elements have explicitly informed the apartment arrival experience.
Sustainability
The architectural response references Queensland’s early beach houses through its openness and connection to the outdoor environment, maximising light through extensive glazing. The buildings façade to the west is protected by operable screens providing privacy and solar protection. The screens are articulated in a rhythm reminiscent of the stage curtains of the former De-Luxe Theatre.
The integrated landscaping and sun-shading on the podium levels provide visual privacy and help to ensure the outdoor spaces can be occupied and are comfortable all year round. The proposed development has a spine of living greenery that begins on the podium levels on both the Eastern and Western sides, the sky gardens extend up the building and caps out at the roof level. These gardens provide a focal entry point to each of the tower apartments and also allows the master bedrooms to gain ocean views through the living spaces.
Materials
Time is the ultimate luxury. At De-Luxe, Burleigh Heads the material palette has been thoughtfully selected to endure just as the heritage building has for nearly 100 years and will continue for many more to come.
The luxury apartments rising above the heritage building are lavished with materials and finishes that honour time and its effects. They are a direct response to the building’s evolution as a theatre, an open-air cinema and an arcade connecting each new apartment to the stories that are embedded in this memorable place.
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The materials will do what only time can, express their true luxury through durability and patina.
