The latest is Tapangka (above) at 11-129 Franklin Street. Down the road is U City at 43 Franklin Street, while around the corner in Gouger Street you’ll find Market Square, right next to Central Market.

Combined they feature hundreds of residential apartments, 28,000 square metres (sqm) of office space, two hotels, retirement living, expansive retail, cafés, bars, restaurants, build-to-rent accommodation, affordable and social housing.

W-B partnered with Renewal SA to design the masterplan for Tapangka on the 6850 sqm site of the old Franklin Street Bus Station, winning a tender run by the City of Adelaide.

Principal Alex Hall, who led the project design for W-B, says Tapangka will be carbon neutral and offers a blend of long-and-short term housing integrated with commercial, civic and retail spaces.

He says Tapangka and the other projects are part of a government strategy to bring residents back into the CBD, which now has less people living there than it did early last century.

“We had this broader idea of appealing to people that are looking to come to South Australia or South Australians who want to live in the city,” says Hall.

Renewal SA predicts more than 1000 people will live in Tapangka across two mixed-use towers encompassing 392 apartments.

At least 137 (35%) of these will be affordable properties, both build-to-sell and rental stock. There’ll also be a 208-key hotel and the CBD’s first build-to-rent (BTR) apartments.

“The fundamentals of good residential design apply to BTR and that’s what we’ve done at Tapangka,” says Hall.

Development partners and funding are now being sought for Tapangka, construction of which will be staged and is expected to start in 2026.

New retail, food and beverage and educational settings will be added to the arcade, adjacent to, and integrated with, the iconic Central Market Hall – one of the Southern Hemisphere’s largest fresh food markets.

Above will be three new towers, the largest reaching 39-levels, the precinct encompassing an all-electric commercial office tower with 20,000 sqm net lettable area, onsite childcare centre, luxury residences, a garden retreat and upscale 250-room hotel.

Market Square and Tapangka follow the development of U City, a 20-storey ‘vertical village’ W-B designed for Uniting Communities.

U City was completed in 2019 on a site the not-for-profit community services organisation has owned for more than 150 years.

The tower is segmented into different zones for retirement residences, specialist disability accommodation, accessible serviced apartments, functions, a Uniting Communities Social Services Hub, commercial and retail spaces.

U City demonstrates innovative outcomes that successfully incorporate often competing and complex technical and social parameters into a truly diverse building that prioritises its role to the public and the city, and creates a benchmark for welfare in Architecture.

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Martin Kelly
Content and Communications Leader (Australia & New Zealand)