Location: 9 Wren St, Mount Pleasant WA 6153
Scope: External slab edge panels and internal structural archways
Completion Year: 2026
Architect: DKO Architect
Builder/Contractor: Exzo
ShapeShift Product: ShapeShell™-RC advanced Glass Fibre Reinforced Concrete (GRC) façade panels
Inspired by the Swan River, the curved form within the facade imbues a sense of rhythm, creating a carefully composed symphony of movement.
A homage to Western Australia’s breathtaking landscape, carved rock formations and winding rolling hills, the facade brings depth and dimension whilst establishing a poetic presence to its leafy streetscape.
The Oasis Apartments project involves the residential development of a multi-storey building featuring complex, curved architectural geometries. ShapeShift Technologies was engaged to provide the engineering design and supply-only solution for the building’s distinct curved structural elements. The project focuses on executing precise external and internal structural interfaces while maintaining architectural continuity.
The project required rigorous engineering controls to meet specific structural and environmental criteria:
Geometric Variation: The fluid, sweeping 3D curves and deep archways required exact dimensional modelling that rendered conventional 2D drafting insufficient for manufacturing verification.
Dimensional Tolerances: To achieve continuous vertical spans without lap joints, individual panels required strict dimensional accuracy to prevent accumulation tolerances along the column faces.
ShapeShift Technologies’ engineering design, material manufacturing, and structural supply are confined to specific architectural zones of the building:
External Slab Edge Panels: Engineering and supply of 30 individual custom-moulded pieces (181 sqm) designed specifically to clad the external concrete slab edges and vertical perimeter columns.
Internal Structural Archways: Engineering and supply of 39 individual curved panels (258 sqm) configured specifically for the internal load-bearing wall boundaries and dedicated architectural archway zones.
Sub-structure Interfaces: Custom design of integrated steel backbones, bracket frameworks, and internal fixing allowances required to anchor the reinforced material panels directly to the primary concrete structure.
ShapeShift Technologies provides innovative, sustainable, and high-quality cladding solutions for modern architectural projects. If you’re ready to bring your vision to life with ShapeShell’s advanced GRC materials, contact us today!
Discuss Your Needs
Slab edge panels sit at the outer edge of each floor plate, which is the point on any building least able to carry load. A panel there acts on the end of a cantilever, so its weight drives bending in the slab, and slab depth drives storey height. On a multi-storey residential building, those effects accumulate floor by floor.
GRC is a thin-section cement product, a fraction of the weight of a precast spandrel covering the same area. Lighter panels mean smaller brackets, less structure behind them and, where the facade is considered early enough, a real influence on the slab design itself.
The facade’s curved forms are produced in the mould rather than approximated on site by faceting or bending flat material. That is what keeps a continuous curve genuinely continuous across a large elevation, and it is one of the reasons GRC suits complex geometry better than most cementitious alternatives: the panel is thin and takes the form of the mould it is made against.
The external panels are cladding. The internal archways are structural, which is a distinct requirement. An arch carries its load largely in compression, and compression is what a cement matrix is strongest in, so the form and the material suit each other. It also means the arches are engineered as load-bearing elements with their reinforcement designed for that purpose, not detailed as decorative linings that happen to be arch-shaped.
On residential buildings, the facade fire requirement frequently governs material selection outright. GRC is cement-based, which places it in the material family used where non-combustibility is required, unlike the polymer composites used for freeform feature work. For a multi-storey apartment facade that is usually the deciding factor before appearance is discussed.
This project used ShapeShell-RC, our GRC panel system.
Browse all ShapeShift projects, or compare the panel materials in cladding panels compared.
