38 Albermarle Street

For people and place, we designed 38 Albermarle Street to create connection – to the existing neighbourhood, to the city, and to each other. We kept the façade of the old building as a nod to the surrounding area. Shared spaces support neighbourly connections. On the Ground Floor, our café Cassette supplies our residents and the neighbouring communities with zero-waste eats.  

Many of the residents who currently live here were connected during the construction process. Our first project in Kensington, we decided to build here because we wanted more people to have access to good design closer to the city.  

We developed the apartments at 38 Albermarle Street to be a backdrop to your life, for you to make your own. We designed each apartment for the things you’d expect: durability, functionality and longevity. Hard-wearing materials like Dekton in all the kitchens reduce wear and tear.  

Each apartment has plenty of windows – to the open-air walkway and facing outwards to the neighbourhood. That supports the things we know make life healthier inside: like natural light and crossflow ventilation. Apartments are energy efficient too – double glazing and exposed concrete ceilings help regulate inside temperatures. We build apartments that we want to live in – and are proud to say a few of our current and former team live here.  

Your building has had many lives before it became 38 Albermarle Street. First as a wool store, then a bakery, and more recently as a cassette tape manufacturer Dex Audio (who moved next door). We kept the façade as a nod to Kensington’s recent industrial past. After all it’s an original Harry A. Norris design – the local architect behind some well-known buildings across Melbourne, from Curtain House to the Nicholas Building. 

The building supports healthier living and social connection. Central to the design is an open-air walkway that brings crossflow ventilation and natural light to your home. The walkway is like an internal verandah – free for you to park your bike or decorate with plants. We also built shared spaces across the building – on the Ground Floor, Level Two and Level Seven – to extend your apartment, and so you can develop connections with your neighbours. Downstairs, we run Cassette – a sustainable zero food waste café. It’s also where you can find our Neighborhood Team for any enquiries. 

Named by the resident community, Cassette is our sustainable café on the ground floor that offers a seasonal menu sourced from local farmers and makers. Cassette produces zero food waste via our bio-composter – with compost given to the local neighbourhood and back to the producers we work with. 

Cassette is where you can find our Neighbourhood Team for any questions you may have about your apartment or the building. Here, staff attend to both the café needs and to resident enquiries - a unique service feature across all our projects. 

38 Albermarle Street is on the lands of the Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung peoples of the Kulin Nation. Our project is 3 kilometers from Melbourne’s city, and only a short trip to Brunswick on the Upfield and Craigieburn Line. Sitting between two important waterways – the Moonee Ponds Creek and the Maribyrnong River – this land was an important place of meeting, travel and food gathering for Wurundjeri.   

Kensington is a suburb in transition. Walking its streets, you can see how a recent industrial past is shifting to provide new ways to live together – through different types of housing to cultural and commercial centres like YoungHusband. It's close to many parks, pools and playgrounds, and well-connected to train lines and trams.