Yarra Terraces
Yarra Terraces - a dynamic urban gateway building that activates street frontages while framing park views. The project balances masterplan requirements with environmental optimization, creating a contextually responsive residential landmark.
Lead
ODO x differential, confidential client
location
Melbourne, australia
Size
45155m²
Date
2025
Type
multi-residential
SCOPE
design & documentation
Yarra Terraces is a residential development in Heidelberg, Melbourne, designed in collaboration with One Design Office (ODO). Differential developed a multi-objective simulation framework to optimize the building form, balancing environmental performance, park views, and compliance with building regulations and urban planning requirements.
The key site challenge involved navigating flood level requirements that raised the ground floor while maintaining active street frontages.
Through multi-objective optimization and computational analysis, the design resolves these constraints to create a building that functions as an urban gateway while meeting both residential amenity and civic activation goals.
The project demonstrates how simulation-driven design can address complex, competing objectives—transforming regulatory and environmental constraints into opportunities for architectural expression and performance optimization.
multi-objective Design & analysis
Courtyard buildings are uncommon in Melbourne's urban context, but the site proportions made this typology the most viable option for maximizing GFA and project feasibility.
We developed a fully parametric building model that integrated planning regulations, enabling simulation of different massing scenarios. Each scenario was tested simultaneously against environmental performance and GFA quality metrics to identify the optimal solution.
The process simulated over 5,000 different massing configurations, providing deep insights into parametric relationships and design trade-offs to identify the optimal solution.
