News: Herzog & de Meuron, Zaha Hadid and Grimshaw are among the shortlisted architects in a competition to overhaul Melbourne’s iconic nineteenth-century railway station at Flinders Street.
Above and top: Flinders Street Station by Zaha Hadid Architects and BVN Architecture
Six international teams have been named on the shortlist for the $1 million redesign, which will see the modernisation of Melbourne’s busiest station and its surrounding spaces, as well as the restoration of the building’s period features.
Flinders Street Station by Hassell and Herzog & de Meuron
Flinders Street Station by Hassell and Herzog & de Meuron
UK firm Grimshaw and Australian studio John Wardle Architects have presented plans to reorientate the station, creating a network of bridges, underpasses, vaults and green space.
Flinders Street Station by NH Architecture
They face competition from local firm NH Architecture, which plans to create a new landmark by floating a glass lattice roof above the station’s additional concourses.
Flinders Street Station by NH Architecture
The shortlist is completed by ARM Architecture, who propose converting the old building into a school, and a team made up of Colombian architects Eduardo Velasquez, Manuel Pineda and Santiago Medina, with designs to add a garden over the roof.
Flinders Street Station by John Wardle Architects and Grimshaw
Each of the proposals retains part of the station’s historic facade. Completed in 1909, over 50 years after the station opened, its prominent dome and clock tower have become one of the city’s most recognisable landmarks.
Flinders Street Station by Eduardo Velasquez, Manuel Pineda and Santiago Medina
The Victorian Government has launched a website presenting all six proposals and is inviting the public to offer feedback and vote for their favourite. The final decision will be made by a panel of architects and experts, and will be announced on 8 August.
Kangaroos aren’t usually associated with bespoke footwear. Yet according to Melbourne-based craftsman, Theo Hassett, leather from the iconic jumping marsupial is “one of the strongest around.” Originally from New Zealand, Hassett relocated to Melbourne six years ago and a chance meeting with James…
Peeling plasterwork exposes brick walls inside this small renovated house in Melbourne by Australian studio Edwards Moore.
The Dolls House is a former worker’s cottage in Fitzroy. Edwards Moore sought to simplify the layout by dividing the building into three main rooms and slotting little courtyards in spaces between.
An extension at the rear of the house creates a large en suite bedroom, while a combined kitchen and dining room occupies the central space and a living room is positioned at the front.
Unfinished walls feature in each of the spaces and the architects built plywood bookshelves and worktops. They also added mirrored golden panels to a selection of surfaces.
“We left fragments of the building as a visual memory of the existing worker’s cottage,” architect Ben Edwards told Dezeen.
The two courtyards sit within newly created alcoves on the southern elevation, where they benefit from long hours of sunlight.
Other details include an original fireplace, pale wooden floors, a sculptural pendant lamp and a ladder leading up to an original loft.
The smallest house on the street, a renovation of a workers cottage in Fitzroy, Melbourne.
Retaining the existing street frontage and primary living areas whilst fragmenting the building addition beyond. Creating courtyards which serve to separate yet connect the functions for living.
A collection of raw and untreated finishes create a grit that compliments the owner’s desire for an uncomplicated living arrangement.
Echoes of the home’s history are reflected in discreetly choreographed gold panels located throughout the space. An abundance of natural light refracting off the all-white interiors creates a sense of the ethereal, an otherworldly environment hidden amongst the urban grain.
C’est l’agence australienne Techne Architect qui a conduit le projet de rénovation du pub « Prahan Hotel » à Melbourne en créant un espace atypique. Mêlant éléments naturels et matériaux récupérés, comme les conduites d’eau qui constituent sa façade, le résultat est magnifique. A découvrir en images.
Australian office Kennedy Nolan Architects used recycled bricks, concrete and rough-sawn timber to construct this courtyard house near the beach in Melbourne.
Merricks Beach House functions as a holiday home and is available to rent on a short-term basis, so Kennedy Nolan Architects was asked to create a flexible building with a structure durable enough to accommodate regularly changing occupants.
The single-storey house is arranged over three staggered levels that respond to the natural slope of the site. Rooms are laid out on a U-shaped plan, creating a large courtyard on the western side of the building.
Half of the house is given over to social spaces, on the assumption that temporary residents spend more time entertaining and are likely to have children around. To the south, a kitchen leads out to a dedicated barbecue deck, while a sunken living room opens out to the courtyard and a “bunk room” can be used as a second lounge.
Two bedrooms are lined up along the eastern side of the building and sit beside a single bathroom. There’s no need for much storage, so each room contains just the basic furnishings.
The recycled clay bricks were used to construct the lowest sections of the house’s walls and are visible both inside and outside the building. In most places they are painted white, but the architects left two unfinished circles to reveal the original colour.
Timber wraps over the tops and corners of the walls, while windows are slotted into gaps between the two different materials.
Read on for more information from Kennedy Nolan Architects:
Merricks Beach House
This small house at Merricks Beach has been designed as a weekender that is available for short term rental. It needed to be an economical build and tough enough for the knocks of a rental market. It is two blocks from the beach. It has no views and had no existing trees on the site.
There are the usual line-up of rooms required, and in this instance it is a modest list; but what becomes a more interesting conversation is how you live differently in the weekender.
» No one needs to ‘own’ a bedroom » No one needs to shower and leave quickly in the morning » What you need to store is completely different » You arrive and unpack; you leave & pack » You spend more time with others; having guests stay over is common » There always seems to be more children than adults! » It is a place to enjoy each other
A courtyard typology ensures maximum privacy and access to northern winter sun, yet in this straightforward floor plan a number of ‘in-between’ spaces have been considered.
The bunk room which is located on the north edge of the internal courtyard has no doors and the king single bunks sit within their own alcove. This spacefeels dark and private and becomes a second living room when the house swells with people. Within this space thereare different places to be. There is no need for walls or doors. Light forms the threshold.
The coastal weekender is not just a summer dream. In winter the hearth is central to this house. Located between the kitchen and living room, a slow combustion fireplace defines another ‘in-between’ space. There is time here in the colder months to pull up a chair, chat or read. In summer this space dissolves into the open corner of the central deck.
A slight fall across the site allows for the house to have 3 levels. The living pit sits below the central timber deck. It is a soft floor that allows you to be low and look out over the skillion roof to the trees in the surrounding area. The pit edge becomes another of these in-between places. It is a place to sit and wide enough for a futon for an afternoon nap in the winter sun. The edge curves to become the hearth for the fire, finishing in a ledge for the television.
The materials of the build are a big part of what this house is about. It is not a precise build. It feels raw and tough. A language of masonry, concrete and timber was developed. The white painted brickwork to both interior and exterior walls is never punctured by windows. They are always walls, solid and straightforward. There are two moments where a circle has been left, telling the story of the recycled red bricks that the house is made from. The structural concrete slab, rough-sawn timber cladding and concrete block screen wall have been expressed with similar simplicity.
Floor plan
Location: Merricks Beach, Melbourne, Australia Architects: Kennedy Nolan Architects Project type: New house Completion Date: May 2012 Site area: 850sqm Floor area: 155sqm Project Team: Rachel Nolan, Patrick Kennedy, Michael Macleod
A wooden wall with the silhouette of three little buildings lines the edge of this house extension in Melbourne by Australian architecture studio BLOXAS (+ slideshow).
Profile House is located within the industrial district of Brunswick East, so BLOXAS designed a new facade that would reference the surrounding brick and corrugated iron warehouses, as well as the timber-clad exterior of the original building.
The front entrance to the house remains in its previous location on the northern elevation, while the new rough-sawn ash facade grows out of a boundary fence on the western perimeter and stretches out along the length of the site.
The extension doubles the size of the single-storey house. The architects retained three front rooms and one small bathroom, then increased the size of the kitchen and dining room and added a new children’s playroom, living room and en suite bedroom beyond.
The zigzagging profile of the building gives angled ceilings to each of the new spaces and brings daylight in through high-level windows and rooflights.
“The defining character of each internal space is the high undulating ceilings,” says BLOXAS director Anthony Clarke. “These, assisted by a central wharf-decking courtyard and smaller lightwell to the west, allow natural light to penetrate throughout the entire plan.”
The long narrow lightwell sits behind the western elevation, while the split-level courtyard is tucked into a recess on the east side of the building so that both the dining room and living room can open out to it.
Most of the new rooms feature bamboo flooring, apart from the living room that has a polished concrete ground surface.
Clarke established BLOXAS, short for Black Line One X Architecture Studio, in 2009 and the studio is based in Fitzroy North, Victoria. See more Australian architecture on Dezeen.
The Profile House offers an evocative tribute to the defined industrial typology of Brunswick East, in Melbourne’s inner north. Simple planning creates clean, elegant and sculptural internal living spaces.
Seeking an addition to their typically dark Californian Bungalow, the clients emphasised the sustainable performance of their future home. Accordingly, they described a space with a feeling of openness, lightness, and visual continuity, connecting their home and landscape.
These values were reinforced by their professions, one specialising in environmental site characterisation and remediation, and the other practicing alternative medicine.
Located in a semi-industrial zone, the site offers visual proximity to the area’s brick and corrugated iron warehouses. Some warehouses and factories are still operational, whilst many lie dormant and in disrepair, ripe for either their imminent demise or redevelopment into multi-storey apartment blocks.
A strong internal vertical profile extrudes to form the western elevation. Clad with rough-sawn overlapping Victorian Ash timber, this distinct contour continues along the western boundary as the defining architectural expression of the Profile House, whilst delivering on the brief of a secure building.
The defining character of each internal space is the high undulating ceilings, these, assisted by a central wharf-decking courtyard and smaller light-well to the west, allow natural light to penetrate throughout the entire plan.
In addition to the retention of three front rooms and central bathroom, the plan now features a re-worked kitchen and dining area, an informal children’s area, and new living space. A new main bedroom, ensuite and private garden are also incorporated. The overall design strengthens family engagement and visual communication, reinforcing the relationships between space and activity.
In addition to dependable design strategies such as careful plan orientation and cross ventilation, solar hot water and water harvesting systems were also included, as well as the use of north facing thermal mass in the main living space. Natural material choices and finishes of low embodied energy including: un-seasoned, un-milled Victorian ash timber, and bamboo flooring through-out the addition adhered to the client’s environmental stipulations.
A refreshing change from housing that simply maximises developer returns, neighbours have responded appreciatively to the low scale design, whilst maintaining the area’s built integrity. In a subtle move the project further softens the corner, with the use of the timber in the boundary wall, juxtaposing against the materials of the factories.
This compact, economical and highly livable outcome was a result of inclusive dialogue between all consultants, the builder, architect and in particular the client.
Architect: Black Line One X Architecture Studio. Location: Brunswick East, Melbourne, Australia. Builder: Genjusho Project year: 2012 Areas: Site = 371sq.m, Existing house area = 87sq.m, Additional area = 83sq.m Furniture: ‘Earl Pinto’ and Ross Gardam
« Miniature Melbourne » est une vidéo par Nathan Kaso utilisant la technique time-lapse et tilt-shift dans la ville de Melbourne en Australie. Réalisée sur 10 mois, cette vidéo propose de découvrir les différents événements et festivals organisés dans la ville tout au long de l’année sur la musique « Reflections » par Tom Day.
Slabs of travertine in two different shades create horizontal stripes across the facade of this house in Melbourne by b.e. Architecture (+ slideshow).
“The house builds on some of the ideas of 57 Tivoli Road,” architect Daniel Rees told Dezeen, comparing the project to a basalt-clad house the studio completed in 2010. “Here, the facade is clad in beautiful banded silver travertine marble.”
b.e. Architecture sourced stone from opposite sides of the same quarry to create the two-tone effect, then cut the material into ten different slab sizes to give a varied pattern.
The striped travertine clads the top floor of the two-storey Cassell Street House, while the lower floor features a mixture of concrete and glass walls. The glazed areas surround a living room on one side and a study on the other, allowing both rooms to open out to separate gardens.
The architects were keen to make the building look aged, so they added weathered timber window shutters and entrance gates to help it fit in with its Edwardian neighbours.
“The house was designed to be sympathetic with the period but not mimetic of any particular style, whilst remaining unapologetically contemporary,” they explain.
Four bedrooms are located on the upper floor, alongside a series of en suite bathrooms. There are also three balconies on this floor, which sit within deep recesses in the stone facade.
A car park occupies the basement and can be accessed by a ramp tucked around the side of the building.
Melbourne-based b.e. Architecture was founded in 1997 by Jonathon Boucher and Broderick Ely. As well as 57 Tivoli Road, the studio also designed Meakins Road, a house surrounded by a steel and timber grid. See more by b.e. Architecture.
Here’s some more information from b.e. Architecture:
Cassell Street house is a boutique new home built on a corner block in South Yarra, built in place of an attached Edwardian row house and set amongst homes of a similar vintage. The house was designed to be sympathetic with the period but not mimetic of any particular style, whilst remaining unapologetically contemporary.
The limited material palate of natural and aged materials such as travertine, rusticated timber, concrete and steel cast over a strong rectilinear form work to give the building the quality of looking older than it is – to look as though in an another world it could well have been standing in its place unchanged since the 1930s.
Being sited on a corner block, the first floor form in particular is highly visible from the street with all sides visible to the passer by. A bespoke material treatment was thus considered an appropriate urban gesture. The complex travertine facade is made up of 10 different sized slabs of stone laid in bands sourced from opposite sides of the same quarry producing two distinct colours. The banding quality of the stone facade is referential of Byzantine buildings in a reference to the owner’s heritage.
The deep apertures formed in the travertine walls of the first floor facade make the building read as a singular and massive stone edifice and in doing so shade and shelter the western windows as well as protecting the occupant from the nearby major road.
By contrast, downstairs is characterised by expansive glazing, opening the living areas to the secluded garden space which surrounds the building.
A visitor enters from the street into the heart of the building adjacent a curving staircase rising three floors from basement garage to the upstairs bedrooms. The curving staircase contrasts with the rectilinear form of the exterior and is used as a separation device to define the ground floor living areas into two distinct zones: The day/summer areas facing north and overlooking a pool and outdoor eating area; the night/winter areas facing south and east into the more sheltered back yard.
Architects: b.e architecture Location: Melbourne, Australia
Construction Team: Bayside Construct Design Team: Andrew Piva, Broderick Ely, Jon Boucher, Kris Keen
News: a 388-metre-high hotel and apartment building, which will be the tallest building in the southern hemisphere when completed, has been approved by planners in Melbourne, Australia.
The government of Victoria last week gave the go-ahead for Australia 108, designed by local architects Fender Katsaladis for a location in the Southbank area just a few streets away from another of its skyscrapers, the 297-metre-high Eureka Tower.
As well as 108 floors of apartments, the building will contain a luxury hotel and several restaurants and bars on its upper floors, plus a food market and cafe near ground level.
Melbourne’s city council had originally opposed the project, fearing the 108-storey building would cast a shadow over the Shrine of Remembrance war memorial, but planning minister Matthew Guy said the project had now received endorsement from the memorial’s trustees and met the city’s planning conditions.
The building is due to be completed in 2018, but may not retain its title as the southern hemisphere’s tallest for long, because an even taller skyscraper is set to complete in South Africa in the same year – the 447-metre-high Centurion-Symbio City tower in Tshwane.
by Vivianne Lapointe Last month we traveled to Honolulu to join the bursting community of artists that migrates there every February as part of Pow Wow Hawaii. The exciting event founded by Jasper Wong has turned into a month-long art festival with so much happening that it could hardly be…
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