ALDI Echuca

–Situated within a heritage overlay a sensitive contextual response was required as part of the design brief. The site circulation was designed so that customer car access is predominantly from Anstruther Street, currently the primary retail and commercial area. This formed the basis of the circulation diagram which, in turn, led to siting the ALDI store and retail units directly addressing and defining the southern boundary to the site, reinstating and activating the street frontage.

–The ALDI frontage was designed as a low-impact single-storey building form with a pitched gable addressing the adjacent St Mary’s Church to the west. The main street frontage to Anstruther Street incorporated a glazed facade with a canopy and pedestrian entrance between the ALDI store and the separate retail units.

–Along the west boundary 1:1 Architects proposed a coloured CGI vertical wall-cladding to the ALDI store facade to break up the horizontal line of the wall. The colour palette also aims to reflect the colours of some of the surrounding building materials – brick, timber and corrugated iron.