ApartmentsPhil BartschWed 24 Jun 26
TRK Property Files Plans for Takada-Designed Fortitude Valley Tower
Architect Koichi Takada is on a design mission to reshape Brisbane’s skyline, driven by an ambitious concept of “nature reclaiming the city”—one tower at a time.
And his latest 34-storey scheme earmarked for inner-city Fortitude Valley is the next bold step for that vision.
Takada’s studio has been engaged by developer TRK Property Group, which has filed plans for the mixed-use tower infused with his signature nature-inspired, subtropical architectural ethos.
It is earmarked for a 1774sq m holding at 57 Berwick Street, replacing a two-storey commercial office building.
TRK Property Group founder Arpan Kohli has declared it will be “a building of genuine architectural significance in one of Brisbane’s most coveted locations”.
“This is a project Brisbane hasn’t seen before,” he said.
Under the plans, the tower would comprise 189 one, two, three and four-bedroom apartments across 29 levels sitting above a five-storey podium and two basement levels.
Crowning the slender structure, two levels of communal open space spanning a combined 960sq m footprint would feature a pool, spa, sauna, steam room, wellness terrace, outdoor meditation area, as well as a work library, meeting rooms, “Zoom” rooms, cinema and games lounge.
As well, a 785sq m commercial office tenancy would occupy the sixth level and on-site parking for 247 cars would be provided across the basement, ground and podium levels.
Takada’s design approach is driven by biophilic principles—translating into a 72.5 per cent green plot ratio with the integration of 1334sq m of green infrastructure.
“The design draws its primary inspiration from Queensland’s subtropical landscape and the idea of nature reclaiming the city,” a submitted design statement said.
“The dense, layered canopies of Brisbane’s remnant rainforest vegetation, the cascading vines and flowering species of the region’s river corridors, and the way subtropical greenery asserts itself through and over hard urban surfaces informed the central ambition of the project: to insert nature into the built fabric of Fortitude Valley.
The tower’s facade incorporates strong vertical structural components “that branch into the balconies, reflecting the natural structure of a plant” with an extensively planted five-storey “forest floor” podium.
“The design response for 57 Berwick Street is grounded in a clear and deliberate design intention that a building in this location, at this moment in the precinct’s evolution, must set a new standard for what residential architecture in Fortitude Valley can be,” the statement said.
“The James Street precinct, with its demonstrated capacity to transform an industrial street through sustained design intention, provided the urban precedent. The subtropical landscape provided the living language.”
Takada’s previous designs on the River City’s skyline have included Aria Property Group’s Upper House and Urban Forest towers at South Brisbane, Graya’s mixed-use commercial play James Street Pavilion at Fortitude Valley, and the 71-storey 25 Mary Street in the CBD by James and John Kaias’s KS Property.
