Among the hundreds of dazzling treasures on show at NGV’s ‘Cartier’ exhibition, Pascale Lepeu would, in an emergency, save the Model A mystery clock first. It’s an horological marvel in which diamond-encrusted hands appear to float inside a crystal block with no visible mechanism. For Lepeu, Cartier Collection director, the 1914 timepiece is of ‘perfect proportions, representing all three dimensions of Cartier: the precious object maker, watchmaker and jeweller combined’.

The clock is restrained by the maison’s usual opulent standards, displayed in the most sober of the themed galleries housing the largest Cartier exhibition ever held in Australia. Designed by Rotterdam-based Sabine Marcelis, principal of her eponymous studio, and Paul Cournet of Cloud, the carpeted spaces lead visitors on a colour-coded arc through the evolution of the nearly 180-year-old maison.

Co-curated with the V&A’s Helen Molesworth, the exhibition builds on the original 2025 London show, with a much larger presentation of nearly 400 jewels and timepieces, deepened by a trove of archival material and an original soundtrack by Ai Yamamoto and Erkki Veltheim. Notably, the brutalist-era NGV allows the exhibits more room to breathe, compared to the 19th-century V&A.

A 27m-long glass mirror, progressing in an ombre from yellow to pink and deep red, greets visitors at the entrance. 'It reflects light and introduces you to the colour palette of what’s to come, embodying how my world and Cartier’s collide,' says Marcelis. It leads to the Manchester tiara, an early example of Cartier’s signature Garland style. Made in 1903 for the Dowager Duchess of Manchester, its 1,500-plus diamonds sparkle as it sits solo under the spotlight.

From there, the exhibition sweeps across decades and continents, charting its innovations through the stories of its patrons and heiresses to fortunes – Daisy Fellowes, Barbara Hutton, Doris Duke – as much as the objects themselves. New for Australian audiences is a collection of early-20th-century pieces commissioned by opera legend Dame Nellie Melba, featuring her beloved turquoise and diamonds alongside Cartier’s pioneering use of platinum.

In a bold yellow room, displays trace the Cartier brothers’ world of inspiration, spanning Egypt, India, China, Japan and Iran. Among many highlights is a necklace commissioned by the Maharaja of Patiala, its 2,930 diamonds anchored by a 234.65ct De Beers yellow diamond – lost after Indian independence and rediscovered in 1998, stripped of its finest stones, which Cartier replaced with replicas.

Next, an emerald cut-like volume distils the Cartier style that came to prominence at the 1925 Paris International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts (its centenary recently honoured). It was when the celebrated Tutti Frutti creations emerged, luscious clusters of carved rubies, sapphires and emeralds made possible by Indian coloured gemstones and artisans. 'It was neither Indian nor Parisian. It simply did not exist before and we made something entirely new,' says Lepeu.

The mood shifts in the Obsession with Stones room. Its glass central volume glows at the edges, making visitors 'feel like you’re inside a gemstone', says Marcelis. Among vintage and modern pieces, like a 2015 bracelet with a 189.345ct Australian black opal, space is dedicated to Jeanne Toussaint, creative director from 1933 to 1970, who elevated the panther motif into an icon. A highlight: a clip brooch owned by the Duchess of Windsor, its platinum and diamond cat resting on a 152.35ct cabochon sapphire. 'To create a jewel with an animal that represents power and independence, that was really new and shocking,' says Lepeu, of an era when women were finding greater freedoms.

A metallic-grey Watches and Clocks room acts as a palate cleanser before the shock of green in the Film and Celebrity room, where Elizabeth Taylor’s Burmese ruby and diamond necklace from third husband Mike Todd sits near outré pieces commissioned by Mexican film star Maria Felix, including articulated snake and crocodile necklaces in diamonds and emeralds that show off Cartier’s technical prowess.

The show culminates in a rotunda housing 24 tiaras, including a pair of turquoise and diamond headpieces worn by sisters Lady Nancy Astor and Lady Phyllis Brand, shown together for the first time in decades, and the 1902 Scroll tiara, worn most recently by Rihanna on the cover of W magazine.

Newer pieces sit beside older ones throughout, and a continuous narrative rooted in culture and innovation emerges. Lepeu calls it Cartier’s vocabulary: ‘a new jewel is a new sentence using our words’, a language that remains spellbinding more than a century on.

‘Cartier’ is on display 12 June to 4 October 2026, at NGV International, Melbourne

ngv.vic.gov.au

Melbourne’s Southbank precinct has plenty of hotels, but none as design-forward as Hannah St Hotel. Occupying an awkward triangular block next to the King’s Way overpass – a site most developers would have ignored – the hotel wears its location as a badge of honour, with a bullnose façade that echoes New York’s Flatiron Building.

Developed by Time & Place in partnership with TFE Hotels, the 188-room property is part of the mixed-use Queensbridge development, a 65-storey tower that rises 209m above Southbank. The hotel alone cost $150 million to deliver, with local designer David Flack of Flack Studio responsible for the interiors.

Wallpaper* checks in at Hannah St Hotel, Melbourne

What’s on your doorstep?

Set a couple of blocks back from the Yarra River, the hotel touts its ‘15-minute city’ credentials, with an impressive roster of cultural institutions on the doorstep: National Gallery of Victoria, Arts Centre Melbourne, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Southbank Theatre, and Hosier Lane’s renowned street art. Major sporting venues such as the Melbourne Cricket Ground and Melbourne Park, where the Australian Open tennis is held, are also within reach, as are the Royal Botanic Gardens.

Its proximity to entertainment complex Crown puts a multitude of cuisines within a short walk, from Bistro Guillaume and Spice Temple to Nobu and Marmont, alongside the casino floor for those inclined.

Who is behind the design?

Callum Fraser of Fraser & Partners designed the building, positioning the main entrance beneath the overpass as an act of urban embrace rather than apology. The ten-storey bullnose podium features 274 custom-precast aerated concrete panels along the façade, engineered to evoke Melbourne’s volcanic bluestone, a material woven into the city’s built environment since the 1830s.

David Flack of Flack Studio, perhaps better known for his residential work, took on the interiors for his first whole-hotel project, drawing freely from across the decades: 1920s French and Italian modernism, 1930s art deco, 1950s curves, 1980s Memphis, with no single era dominating. The eclecticism extends to the corridors, where burnished stainless steel wayfinding meets red-painted ceilings – a nod to deco-era Tokyo and New York’s Grand Central Station.

An art programme curated almost entirely around women artists adds further depth: Justene Williams’ large transmorphic sculpture commands the double-height lobby, Georgia Spain’s figurative abstract painting dominates the alternate entrance, and photographer Jo Duck’s quirky portraits appear in rooms and suites.

The room to book

The triangular building generates a variety of irregular room configurations – angular, curved, pointed, but rarely square. Tying it all together is Flack Studio’s bespoke handiwork: blush-pink carpets, polished concrete ceilings, octagonal ottomans covered in bright Kvadrat Maharam fabrics, polished steel and brass joinery referencing Charlotte Perriand, and bathrooms finished in navy blue tiles, Carrara marble and terrazzo. Almost every piece of furniture, fixture and fitting has been custom-made; the sole exception is a single black swivel desk chair by Tecno in each room.

Entry-level Local and Traveller rooms start at 21 sq m and come with Malin + Goetz amenities, Marshall speakers, Dyson hairdryers and 55-inch smart TVs. For space, style and comfort, the Lookout Corner Suites are worth a look. At 45 sq m, they offer 270-degree city views through floor-to-ceiling glazing, with hairpin-shaped window lounges that follow the building’s curved geometry.

Top of the range is the Hannah Suite, a 58 sq m penthouse with kitchen, separate living and dining rooms, window-side bathtub and private terrace. Views here – overpass, Crown car park, city skyline – are proudly gritty, in keeping with the spirit of the place.

Staying for drinks and dinner?

Five venues across the hotel are operated by Melbourne hospitality veterans The Mulberry Group. The day begins at Hannah St Coffee, a pavement-facing kiosk serving Square One espresso and freshly baked pastries to guests and passing locals.

Anchoring the ground floor is Coupette, an all-day European bistro that occupies the building’s curved front corner. Sunlight pours through wraparound windows into a high-ceilinged room centred on a U-shaped, marble-topped bar, with blue banquettes lining the walls.

Breakfast runs from bacon and egg rolls and avocado tartine to a blue swimmer crab omelette that is the standout of the morning menu. Lunch and dinner lean into European and Australian comfort fare: steak frites, côte de porc, grilled scampi with citrus butter, and crème brûlée or tiramisu to finish.

For drinks, Bar Hannah in the lobby is good for cocktails from mid-afternoon, while the intimate Carriage Lounge suits a late-evening whisky. The Terrace Lounge, an indoor-outdoor rooftop space on the tenth floor, serves spritzes by day and cocktails with music after dark, with views across Southbank and the city.

Where to switch off

The glass-roofed Clubhouse, shared between hotel guests and building residents, houses a black and white-tiled 25-metre-long swimming pool, steam room and sauna, and gym, with sun loungers and banquettes spilling onto an outdoor terrace.

The verdict

Hannah St Hotel makes a virtue of its awkward angles and setting, with a neighbourhood character likely to appeal to both overnight guests and local residents. Flack’s interiors give the hotel a distinctive edge, and it sits close to the city centre and within walking distance of Melbourne’s top cultural institutions, the Yarra River, green space and a strong roster of restaurants and bars.

Hannah St Hotel is located at 19 Walker Street, Southbank, Victoria 3006, Australia

Hugh Allen, the wunderkind Australian chef who earned three hats – the country’s highest restaurant rating – at Vue de Monde before his 27th birthday, is on a mission. And now, barely 30, he has transformed a rundown pavilion in Melbourne’s Fitzroy Gardens into Yiaga, a soigné 44-seat restaurant focused on native ingredients and local farms.

Yiaga, Melbourne

The site has served refreshment since 1908, first as the Kiosk tearooms, replaced by the Pavilion café in the 1960s, before ceasing trading several years ago. Allen discovered the space during Melbourne’s first lockdown in 2019, recognising it as the perfect spot for his debut solo venture.

Working with renowned local architect John Wardle, Allen preserved only the existing roof and structure while reimagining everything beneath. ‘Hugh was keen on an ‘Australian zen’ warmth to the interiors,’ says Wardle, adding that the collaboration led to a deep friendship forged through a shared passion for makers and making. For starters, Allen insisted that the approach to Yiaga should matter as much as the meal itself.

In the local Wurundjeri language, yiaga means ‘seek and find’, a reference to the journey of discovery that diners must undertake through Victorian-era gardens past tree-lined avenues, lake and conservatory, possibly glimpsing possums, lorikeets and microbats along the way before arriving eventually at Wardle’s sleek, low-slung pile. This layered arrival sequence – garden to path to doorway to portal to reception to cellar – amplifies the occasion through deliberate pacing, each transition preparing diners for the next experience while respecting the threshold between public garden and private feast.

The entrance commands attention. Designed by Wardle and Simon Lloyd, and crafted by ceramicist Robert Gordon, more than 13,000 individually formed tiles curve around the interior walls, their terracotta texture mimicking the bark of the surrounding Scottish elm trees. Wardle says, ‘the tiles were sketched, then modelled up to develop a single one that could be formed around the varying contours’.

Floor-to-ceiling glazing dissolves the boundary between dining room and garden, and the majority of diners face towards the open kitchen rather than the view on the basis that Allen didn’t want servers interrupting conversations or sight lines to discuss menus or deliver plates.

The material palette draws entirely from local craftsmanship. Furniture maker Ross Thompson shaped blackwood timber into the cellar and drinks trolley, while designer Jon Goulder crafted custom chairs built for lingering. The private dining table, created by Vivienne Wong from cypress trees planted by one Baron Ferdinand von Mueller in the 1800s, connects diners to the site’s colonial heritage. Glass artist Alexandra Hirst formed the dining glassware by hand, and metalsmith Tobi Bockholt forged the kitchen knives.

This commitment to place extends to Allen’s menu. Retired Blackmore Wagyu breeding cows, prized for their depth of flavour after lives spent grazing pastures, ground the protein selections. Foraged wakame seaweed surfaces in desserts, while Gippsland dairy enriches dishes with Victorian terroir, and Queensland’s coral trout carries the warmth of northern waters south. Native herbs – river mint and Geraldton waxflower, among them – perfume plates with distinctly Australian aromatics. These ingredients form the backbone of Yiaga’s single-sitting service each evening.

And the absence of table turnover allows Allen’s team of 12 chefs to work at a more measured pace. ‘All tables are equal, none more special than others,’ says Wardle. This democratic approach extends to the views: every seat offers similar perspectives of the kitchen and the garden. Though both are worthy of your undivided attention, this could make for a tricky evening.

Yiaga is located at Fitzroy Gardens, Melbourne 3002, Australia.

This article appears in the January 2026 Next Generation Issue of Wallpaper*, available in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today.

These days, a stellar cocktail alone no longer seems enough to lure a crowd. The more retro the bar, the better – and if it doesn’t come with a curated vinyl library and a high-fidelity sound system, it barely warrants the detour. Record bars, inspired by Japanese kissa culture, continue their global ascent, placing the audio experience at the centre of hospitality (recent openings include Jaç Hi-Fi Café in Barcelona and Side A in San Francisco). The latest to join the movement is LB’s Record Bar in Melbourne, owned by the Sydney-based hospitality group Merivale.

LB’s Record Bar, Melbourne

Tucked into Meyers Place laneway, between Bourke and Little Collins Streets, LB’s is conceived as a portal. ‘LB’s is designed to feel like the kind of bar you stumble into and instantly want to stay,’ says Nasim Koerting, Merivale’s design director. ‘We wanted warmth, nostalgia and a sense of discovery, as if the design had always been there, except you’ve just discovered a gem in the heart of the city.’

A façade of small mosaic tiles sets the tone, punctuated by wall-mounted tables and mushroom-style lamps that extend the ambience outdoors. Toy-like orange stools bring playfulness to the streetscape, while two generous windows offer a glimpse inside: a neon-washed interior where colour, texture and sound converge. Inside, music shaped the brief. ‘Everything radiates from the idea of a bar built around the ritual of playing records. There are acoustic treatments on all surfaces,’ Koerting adds.

An original horseshoe bar grounds the room, restored and wrapped in a timber terrazzo top. Carpet underfoot and velvet upholstery heighten the sense of warmth, amplified by ceiling-mounted strip lights that bathe the space in a saturated red glow. Oversized speakers and walls lined with vintage records sourced from local independent stores become architectural features – almost altarpieces. Multi-level bench seating wraps the perimeter in an amphitheatre-like arrangement, while a disco ball and graphic ceiling grid nod to a 1970s-80s lineage, reinterpreted with contemporary restraint.

The drinks offering carries the same intent. Husband-and-wife duo Michale and Zara Madrusan, also behind Melbourne’s acclaimed The Everleigh, Heartbreaker and Bar Margaux, have devised an agave-forward menu. Do not miss the LB’s House Margarita, made with Altos Plata tequila, mezcal, mandarin, lime and a grasshopper salt rim. Clever riffs on classics follow: an aerated Dancefloor Martini, a suite of Daiquiris, thoughtful wine selections and compelling spirit-free options.

LB’s Record Bar is located at 12 Meyers Pl, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia.

There is a quiet power in objects imbued with the maker’s identity, history, and lived experience. Art has long been a vessel for storytelling, its language deepening over time, yet this evolution remains somewhat unfinished; women’s voices continue to be underrepresented, their perspectives still pushing for equal space within the cultural conversation.

Against this backdrop, initiatives that actively shape gender equity in the creative sphere take on profound significance. Among them is the Mecca x NGV Women in Design Commission, supported by Mecca’s M-Power; it's a landmark Australian series inviting globally acclaimed women designers to create groundbreaking new works for the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) Collection.

This year, the fourth commission-winner Nipa Doshi, one half of the London-based practice Doshi Levien, will present ‘A Room of My Own’ – a handcrafted, multidimensional cabinet and shrine, to be unveiled on 25 September 2025 at NGV International in Melbourne, where it will become a permanent part of the gallery’s collection.

A Room of My Own: Nipa Doshi's Mecca x NGV Women in Design Commission

Part artwork, part architectural gesture, the piece draws deeply from Doshi’s cultural heritage, echoing the sensibilities that also define her award-winning industrial product designs, where fine craftsmanship meets modern innovation and Indian visual culture.

The cabinet draws from one of India’s oldest storytelling traditions: originating over 400 years ago in Rajasthan, kaavads or tiny wooden cabinets are, to date, made by skilled craftsmen, with hand-painted panels depicting gods, goddesses, local heroes, and saints. As each panel is unfolded, a kaavadiya or storyteller reveals and narrates the tale, layer by layer, like a journey through time.

'My piece, inspired by this tradition, also honours the influential women in my life,' says Doshi. The multifaceted cabinet, part dressing table, part shrine, adorned with abstract portraits of these women, is as much about caring for the body as it is for nourishing the mind and soul. It reflects the idea of women as inherently multifaceted. The piece is architectural and narrative.'

The cabinet takes the form of an elongated octagon: when it's opened up, one side showcases paintings while the other side features a mirror. It can serve as a dressing table or a writing desk.

The paintings depict five central characters from Doshi’s life: the first is titled Loud Ladies. 'This relates to my earliest memory of growing up around my mother’s friends, across different generations. They would gather in the afternoons, talking animatedly about their lives. What I observed was a true sense of community and female kinship; this instinct to support one another. My idea of beauty was shaped then, not only by the way they presented themselves, but also by how they cared for each other.'

The second, titled Maya, honours Doshi’s aunt, a true powerhouse who ran a textile workshop, collaborated with master craftswomen, founded two NGOs supporting women, worked as a chartered accountant, and even established schools.

The third is called Nina – an architect, whose visits to Doshi in hospital were marked by warmth and sartorial splendour.

The fourth is Zeenat, named after the iconic Bollywood star Zeenat Aman from the 70s, celebrated for her avant-garde style, bold on-screen roles, and timeless beauty. At times a village belle, at others a free-spirited hippie, she embodied effortless allure. In the cabinet, Zeenat becomes a symbol of sensuality and glamour; a reminder that it holds space for every kind of woman. 'And in the centre is a self-portrait, reflecting on the ideas of confidence, self-love and respect,' adds Doshi.

This unique piece of work was developed by Doshi in close collaboration with her partner Jonathan Levien and was made in France by Atelier Helbecque. The wonderful colours of lacquer, all hand-mixed in Doshi's studio, are inspired by the vivid world of 1970s Indian cinema, the jewel tones of Jodhpur’s miniature paintings, and the evocative works of Amrita Sher-Gil and photographer Raghubir Singh. Elements of brass and gold leaf add a subtle sheen to the piece, while the glass interior allows light to flow through, eliminating the need for internal lighting.

Perhaps the most special aspect of this project is the creation of a truly one-of-a-kind typeface, made possible by the time and resources provided by Mecca x NGV. Over five months, Doshi designed a bespoke font on mathematical grids, each letter formed like intricate pieces of jewellery. From the precious A, O, and T to the tiniest heart motifs, every detail of each character is exquisitely resolved. The gallery has acquired the typeface too, as part of the permanent collection.

Nipa Doshi's exhibition at NGV

For the exhibition, Doshi has conceived two four-metre-long textile panels that weave together memories of home, both real and imagined, positioned alongside the cabinet. On closer inspection, intimate symbols emerge from her India: a surahi (water jug), echoes of Zeenat and even objects from her studio, all distilled into abstract forms.

Alphabets will be hand-painted by a master sign painter, and the textile panels will be illuminated. Complementing the installation, the museum will screen a specially commissioned film, guiding visitors through the cabinet’s intricate interiors and details, set to the nostalgic rhythms of iconic Hindi film songs.

'I wanted to create work that truly reflects my values in design, both as an individual and as a woman,' shares Doshi. 'I wanted to design a space that I would want to inhabit, centred on well-being. I feel proud and honoured to receive this opportunity; it has opened up another universe for me and my creative endeavours.'

Something compelling is taking shape in the offices of Emergent Studios, the Melbourne-based landscape architecture practice. Here, creative collaboration between landscape architects and digital innovators is revealing an unexpected truth: that the best landscapes are never really finished.

‘There's a lack of control that we welcome as designers,’ says Sarah Hicks, the studio's design director. This insight stems from emergence theory – the idea that complex systems end up being more than the sum of their parts – which also gives the studio its moniker. ‘We see the role of emergence as being intrinsic to landscape design,’ Hicks says, explaining that landscapes evolve over time through growth, succession, and the interactions of other species, far beyond their original design and construction.

Meet Australia's Emergent Studios

Emergent’s six-person practice, led by founding directors Matt Hamilton, Niki Schwabe, and Hicks, has spent over a decade perfecting what they call 'all hands-on deck’ collaboration. Their bijou scale enables something relatively rare in landscape architecture: director input across all projects, from social housing developments to health and education facilities.

Crucially, at the heart of this approach lies a sophisticated digital toolkit that transforms how landscapes are analysed and documented. ‘We are a paperless office, starting all design work from digital hand drawing,' Hicks explains, describing the organic process of moving from initial sketches on digital tablets to technical modelling and complete documentation through specialised software. This mix of intuitive hand-drawing and computational precision reflects Emergent’s broader philosophy: embracing both the art of landscaping and cutting-edge technology. At a more granular level, Hicks says the studio’s work is ‘driven by the potential role of landscape to shape ecological biodiversity and social value in the built environment.’

The most striking expression of this approach is the Munarra Centre for Regional Excellence in Shepparton, which opened last August as an education and sporting facility honouring First Nations culture. Working alongside ARM Architecture, the studio created a landscape and building shaped entirely through co-design with Yorta Yorta community members – the traditional owners of this part of Australia.

The Munarra project showcases Emergent’s commitment to what Hicks calls ‘regenerative conditions’ – both ecologically and socially. The landscape features biodiverse plantings of species nominated by Yorta Yorta Elders for their cultural significance: Murnong (Yam Daisy), Garawun (Mat-rush), and indigenous wildflowers that create learning landscapes to be harvested for community workshops.

Equally transformative was Emergent’s breakthrough project in late 2023. The narrm ngarrgu Rooftop Terrace atop Melbourne's Queen Victoria Market library is an elevated civic space that demonstrates the studio’s ability to create biodiverse urban ecosystems that serve multiple communities at once. The design includes a ceremonial sand circle, interactive water play, and artwork by First Nations artist Maree Clarke that transform functional elements into sculptural play spaces. The wurru wurra outdoor terrace connects the bubup wilam Children's Library with family services to create a secure yet welcoming environment where indigenous plants are visited by native birds, marsupials, and butterflies above the market's bustling activity below.

Looking ahead, Hicks and her partners are busy scaling their digital innovations with the upcoming release of DOCOplant, a comprehensive planting tool featuring an authentication system and online plant database, which will be accessible by the broader industry. Meanwhile, they're deep into an ecological restoration project transforming a southeastern cattle farm back to swampy woodlands, whilst investigating how agricultural landscapes can regenerate around centuries-old River Red Gums. ’We need to see a growth of public investment in landscape architecture and its stewardship to address future challenges within the built environment,’ Hicks argues.

In a time of climate urgency, this approach suggests that the future of landscape lies not in control, but in collaboration with communities, Country, and the wild intelligence that emerges when we create spaces where life is allowed to grow, well, naturally. Luckily for us, practices like Emergent Studios are showing us exactly just how that future might take root.

Australian beauty brand Mecca has unveiled its new flagship on Bourke Street in central Melbourne, establishing it as one of the world’s largest standalone beauty stores. Spanning three storeys and 4,000 sq m, the space by Sydney-based Studio McQualter seamlessly blends heritage restoration with contemporary retail design.

Mecca opens in Melbourne

Housed in the 1930s art deco EW Cole building, originally designed by architect Harry Norris and once home to the legendary Coles Book Arcade, this new flagship also marks a homecoming of sorts. Mecca’s first store opened nearby in 1997, though a modest 60 times smaller than this latest incarnation. There are currently over 100 Mecca stores across Australia and New Zealand.

A multi-level, immersive environment, Mecca’s founder Jo Horgan describes the store as her 'love letter to Melbourne.' It features dedicated zones for makeup, skincare, hair salons, a nail bar, café, and a suite of therapy and treatment rooms. There’s even an auditorium to host Mecca’s educational programmes.

The project was led by Sydney-based Studio McQualter, headed by Donald McQualter, a practice known for its material sensibility and contextual nuance—the Zimmerman New York flagship is among its portfolio of work. Horgan’s brief was clear: 'to create the world’s most extraordinary, innovative and loved experiential beauty destination.' The architectural aim was to develop a distinct concept and spatial identity while remaining true to the Mecca experience.

'Our focus was to pay homage to the heritage while introducing a cohesive and contemporary visual language,' the studio's founders told Wallpaper*. 'Consistent material palettes, artistic interventions, and thoughtful zoning mean each service feels part of a unified experience, while still allowing for distinct moments of discovery.'

This design philosophy translated into a strategy of uncovering and integrating original architectural elements. The building’s terracotta façade was restored, and faience tiles originally produced in Sunshine, Victoria, were complemented by newly recast counterparts from Darwen Terracotta in the UK. The removal of an awning revealed five arched windows, reinstating vertical proportions, and drawing light into the first floor.

Within the interior is now a generous central void, created by repositioning and separating the escalators. This spatial move opened up clear sightlines across all levels to highlight the restored heritage ceiling from the ground floor. A new mezzanine, introduced through this reconfiguration, has also contributed to the overall sense of openness.

At the heart of it all sits the Beauty Carousel – a sculptural, circular anchor on the ground floor. 'It’s a visual cue for discovery and play,' explains Horgan, 'where customers gather, try new products, learn techniques and connect with our team. With space for up to 12 guests, it is a communal space inspired by the joy of makeup, the fun of colour and the feeling of being part of something vibrant.'

Materials, too, are presented in their raw, authentic form – exposed structural elements, hand-finished tiles, and a muted, refined palette. Bespoke furniture, combining vintage and contemporary pieces, introduces variation in texture and scale. Large Venini pendants and sculptural wall sconces bring a soft, understated warmth to the lighting scheme.

'Part of our core design strategy was to peel back the layers that had long obscured the site’s architectural heritage,' the studio notes. Original terrazzo floors were uncovered and preserved, along with exposed concrete columns and ornamental plaster ceilings. A vibrant Aztec tile design from the 1930s was also revealed, allowing the building’s rich history to converse with the new interventions.

“When we stepped into this building, we saw something special,” Horgan concludes. “Not just beauty in the architecture, but the possibility of it becoming a home for everything our customers had shared with us about what beauty means to them.”

Mecca, 295 Bourke St, Melbourne VIC 3000

The Republic Tower, designed by Fender Katsalidis Architects, was one of the first high-rise apartment buildings that celebrated city living in Melbourne in the early noughties. Its ship-like form with a distinctive wedge-shaped wing still slows traffic. Completed in 1999, the Republic is now surrounded by many other towers. Yet its appeal remains strong, and one of its homes was recently reworked by Multiplicity, who respected the history of the original design but created a more contemporary environment over 25 years from its inauguration.

Take a tour of this refreshed Republic Tower apartment

Renovated for a retired couple who had spent a number of years living overseas, the brief given to Multiplicity addressed both the way the couple live, and importantly, the encroaching towers. '[The clients] Helen and George weren’t sure if they could face any more development around them, but they love the location, just a stone’s throw from the Queen Victoria Market,' says interior designer Sioux Clark, a director of Multiplicity, who worked closely with architect Tim O’Sullivan, co-director of the practice, and graduate architect Jesse Osadczuk.

With reduced views and, to a certain degree, natural light, caused by new developments, Multiplicity fully gutted the 120 square-metre apartment and inserted a curvaceous spine-like wall. Clad in a reflective aluminium, views beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows become abstracted and the natural light considerably more generous. 'That insertion certainly animated the spaces as well as loosely dividing the kitchen and living areas from the bedrooms (now two instead of three),' says O’Sullivan, who was mindful of not having to completely rearrange all the plumbing and services.

While the original galley-style kitchen, with burl-veneer joinery, was functional, it certainly wasn’t ideal for a couple who enjoy cooking and entertaining friends. 'We wanted to extend the kitchen so it felt like it actually reaches out to you, whether you’re sitting in the living area or around the dining table,' says O’Sullivan. In contrast, the main bedroom and ensuite are private and cocoon-like. Multiplicity retained two curved bathroom walls that were formerly en-suites for two bedrooms, but added their distinctive signature – acrylic panels and reflective materials. A sense of transparency was also created for the wardrobes in the main bedroom. Featuring clear acrylic doors, these wardrobes add depth and texture. 'Helen has a wonderful collection of clothing, so why hide these behind opaque solid doors?' says Clark.

Instead of three bedrooms, there are now two – the main bedroom and a secondary, smaller bedroom suite with an adjacent study nook. The second bedroom can be used for guests or for watching television without disturbing others. And for further insulation and acoustic separation, Multiplicity lined the ceilings in Woodwool, a natural material that is akin to the Stramit ceilings used in the 1950s and ‘60s. While there are still a few elements from the late 1990s, this apartment is now fit for 21st-century living, a comfortable home, thoughtfully tailored to its sophisticated urban owners.

‘Brique de verre’, aka the humble glass block, first patented in 1886 and a regular feature of art deco buildings, may have had a starring role in the iconic 1932 Maison de Verre in Paris, yet it has slightly lost its lustre with residential clients in recent years.

Of course, architects have never stopped loving them, from Renzo Piano, whose 2001 Maison Hermès in Tokyo features over 13,000 bespoke glass blocks, to MVRDV, who in 2016 used glass to replace the original bricks on Chanel’s flagship store in Amsterdam.

Celebrating the glass block with this Melbourne building

The blocks are not just aesthetically pleasing but have many excellent properties, including high strength and durability, light diffusion, soundproofing and fire resistance. And all these qualities made them absolutely perfect for Splinter Society’s latest project, Newburgh Light House in Melbourne’s Auburn Village.

The ten-storey apartment block is located on a particularly tricky 50 sq m site, which the Melbourne-based studio, led by Asha Nicholas and Chris Stan­ley, describes as ‘almost un-buildable’. And it’s no exaggeration: the plot sits right right next to a historic train station, with only a pedestrian path separating it from the VicTrack trainlines.

Despite the challenging site, Splinter Society has created a highly sustainable housing solution, using glass blocks as a key material to meet the stringent fire, acoustic and light requirements, and prefabricated elements to address the construction constraints.

Both north and south façades use glass blocks and recessed glazing to maximise the light and views, while other surfaces are clad in metal panels with intricate detailing. ‘The translucent facades, combined with reflective finishes throughout, form a lantern to the public realm,’ explain the architects.

Built out of concrete to withstand a train derailment, the ground level is home to a small coffee shop opening onto the public pathway, with bluestone cobbles forming a pixelated pattern to allow ground-floor permeability. At the back the architects have even managed to squeeze in a garage, using a car stacker.

Each full-level residence is accessed directly through the lift or stairs, meaning no space is wasted on hallways or corridors. Most are two-bedroom apartments, but there is also a duplex, as well as bespoke top-floor penthouse. All are designed to be adaptable, and to appeal to both young families and individuals sharing a flat.

Inside, the grid theme continues in the shape of timber panelling, natural stone and ceramic tiles. ‘The glass blocks present a unique internal finish that creates a brilliant changing light effect through the day,’ say the architects. ‘Permeability of light through the floor plate is achieved with textured glass doors and internal walls.’

Known for its distinctly tactile projects that focus on func­tion­al­i­ty and envi­ron­men­tal sustainability, Splinter Society has also designed the Hawthorn Gable House, a family house in a prized her­itage estate, and a masterplan for Metung Hot Springs, a venue set by a lagoon in the Banksia Forest.

splintersociety.com

Melbourne-born, London-based twins Laura and Deanna Fanning are the forces behind Kiko Kostadinov’s womenswear line, an offshoot of the Bulgarian designer’s eponymous label that launched in 2018. Following the menswear line’s offbeat pattern-cutting, intriguing use of colour and futuristic sheen, the pair have honed a powerful and subversive vision of the Kiko Kostadinov woman built on their own fixations, which span the sci-fi movies of the 1960s, golden-age glamour and the matriarchs of their own family.

This season, showing at historic Brasserie Mollard earlier this week at Paris Fashion Week A/W 2025, they looked towards Vali Myers, an Australian dancer who lived amongst Paris’ bohemian community in the 1950s, and the rebellious Teddy Girls of the same decade for a mashed-up, era traversing collection that was entirely their own. ‘We are thinking of women taking up their bodies, being sexual and monumental, strong-minded and soft,’ they said following the show. ‘Finding a path for oneself in the in-between of opposites, the way only a woman can.’

Here, as seen in the March 2025 Style Issue of Wallpaper*, Laura and Deanna Fanning give us a tour of their hometown – from galleries, bookstores and bars, to a contemporary jeweller to know.

A guide to Melbourne from Kiko Kostadinov’s Laura and Deanna Fanning

Curtin House

From serving as the HQ of the Communist party in the late 1930s to becoming a haven for an artistic intelligentsia in the following decades, this commercial palazzo-style building now houses an array of restaurants, bars and design studios, as well as a rooftop cinema and retail stores such as PAM and Dot Comme.

252 Swanston St. Melbourne, Vic 3000

curtinhouse.com

Siglo

Sitting at the top of the theatre district, Siglo is the perfect spot for a drink. Its buzzy, open-air rooftop bar, located above the Melbourne Supper Club, boasts broad views of Spring Street, Parliament House and St Patrick’s Cathedral.

2/161 Spring Street Melbourne Victoria 3000

siglobar.com.au

Seb Brown

Contemporary jeweller Seb Brown’s striking handcrafted pieces can be explored at the brand’s city centre studio and showroom, designed by architect Sean Godsell.

Room 1006, Level 10. The Century Building 125 Swanston St Melbourne VIC 3000

seb-brown.com

Carnation Canteen

Co-founded by architect and chef Audrey Shaw and her partner, Zander Di Stefano, this Fitzroy restaurant features a Mediterranean menu that changes weekly and includes a delightful wine list. The neighbourhood also has some cool little stores that are worth visiting and, if you’re here in the summer months, go for a dip at Fitzroy’s outdoor pool.

165 Gore St, Fitzroy, Melbourne VIC 3065

carnationcanteen.com

Neon Parc

At this contemporary art gallery in Brunswick, you will find a diverse range of exhibitions, featuring work by both emerging and established Australian artists, as well as international names. There is also a second gallery in South Yarra.

15 Tinning Street, Brunswick, Melbourne VIC 3056

neonparc.com.au

Perimeter Books

Head to Thornbury for this exquisite art and design publisher, distributor and
book store.

734 High St, Thornbury Melbourne VIC 3071

perimeterbooks.com

Heide Museum of Modern Art

A public art institution and sculpture park on a stretch of the Yarra River, Heide is named after the Heidelberg School, an Australian art movement of the late 19th century.

7 Templestowe Rd, Bulleen Melbourne VIC 3105

heide.com.au

We acknowledge the Bunurong and Wurundjeri peoples of the Kulin, the traditional custodians of the land and waters on which we celebrate these landmarks. We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.

A version of this article appeared n the March 2025 issue of Wallpaper*, available on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today.

Located on bustling Russell Street, Melbourne Place is the city’s newest independent hotel that oozes colour, charisma and cultural identity. It’s intriguing and expressive; checking in here sets the mood for urban exploration in a city renowned for its art, fashion, coffee and culinary scene.

Melbourne Place feels perfectly at ease amongst towering plane trees, buzzing laneways, coffee roasters and soaring cathedral spires, where heritage-listed neighbours – like Hero, the original telephone exchange – anchor the handsome newcomer in the city’s vernacular.

Wallpaper* checks in at: Melbourne Place

What’s on your doorstep?

Located on the ‘Paris end’ of Russell Street, the hotel is desirably central and only a short amble from familiar favourites: The Block Arcade, Treasury Gardens, Her Majesty’s Theater, the State Library and the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). The hotel's sweeping street frontage will soon fill with intriguing boutiques in true Melbourne fashion. For a quintessential Melbourne experience, grab a croissant from Lune Croissanterie and a latte from People’s Coffee before boarding the City Circle Tram.

Who is behind the design?

The 16-storey urban sanctuary is the first foray into the hotel landscape for lauded Melbourne-based architect Kennedy Nolan, who enlisted a host of local makers and artists to shape the identity of the city’s newest icon. The result is a visual feast that amplifies volume, light, colour and textures, both inside and out.

‘The brief was to make it distinct from global brands, a truly independent hotel to give the visitor an authentic sense of something made in, by and for the city and those who want a piece of it,’ says Patrick Kennedy, the founding partner and principal architect of Kennedy Nolan.

Despite its newly formed modernist bones and playful, contemporary interior, Melbourne Place is drenched in cultural character, a feat only realisable by commissioning local makers and designers. And here, first impressions count. Guests are lured from the street into the lobby by an enormous screen. Curated by MARS Gallery, the hotel showcases the diversity of Australian modern art with intriguing digital works from artists Atong Atem, Brodie Kokkinos, Tristan Jalleh, Cameron Robbins and Kent Morris.

Outside, the hotel’s highly modelled façade features red accents and locally fired bricks from a historic brickworks factory. Inside, the same muted brickwork, West Australian jarrah and Corten steel flow throughout while playfully dousing each floor in spectrums of colour. ‘The thing I enjoy most is the thresholds, the unexpected shifts in colour as you move through the spaces, which is sometimes surprising but still feels cohesive,’ shares Kennedy. On level ten in the Urban Soak room, sky-blue finger tiles are deliciously fresh in contrast to the camel-coloured walls, shocking-orange wall sconces, sheer terracotta curtains and layers of burnt orange, pinks and rust.

The room to book

Melbourne Place has 191 rooms that range from functional ‘Everyday’ rooms to spacious suites and the penthouse, presiding over the city. Each floor evolves in an alchemy of colour, texture and personality with striking portraits by Melbourne-based artist Atong Atem.

There’s no doubt that the penthouse is the most coveted check-in at Melbourne Place. It’s notably lighter and brighter – thanks to double-height windows and creamy terrazzo tiles – than the floors below, bathed in sweeping city views from sunrise to set. It’s meticulously finessed and laden in marble, with a ten-seater dining table and in-suite bar, a custom low-lying Jardan lounger and a baby grand piano.

Located on level ten, at the end of the bottle-green corridor, you’ll find Urban Soak. Inside, styling notes are moody and atmospheric: bespoke Frette linen melts over a king-sized bed, musk-pink terrazzo tiles by Fibonacci are layered with playful rugs by Cadry’s; a bespoke ‘Joy Bear’ chair by Jardan invites lounging; and rich jarrah timber cabinetry frames ceramic Robert Gordon basins.

But it’s the huge soak tub that makes this room a standout. Designed by Thomas Coward for Mains Water Co, the tub is poised to take in the urban sprawl and is flanked by voluptuous Zachary Frankel bath stools where you’ll find Aesop amenities perched beside branded linen robes.

Staying for drinks and dinner?

Mid Air, suspended on level 12, is a convivial meeting place for Melbournians and out-of-towners. Once again, design dominates with the likes of canvas-clad ‘TBC2’ dining chairs by Dowel Jones, tiled tabletops and pockets of curved sofas in warm reds. Here on the sunny terrace, hatted chef Nick Deligiannis serves up breakfast, lunch and dinner with Eastern-Mediterranean flavours, culminating in a three-course tasting menu, all under the gaze of two oversized circular ‘eyes’ framing the cityscape. A word for the wise: while the energy of the Mid Air may feel laid-back, book ahead – walk-ins, even for mid-week drinks, can mean a lengthy wait, by which time you would have mozied off to a nearby bar, albeit in a less impressive setting.

Restaurateurs Ross and Sunny Lusted are at the helm of Marmelo, the hotel’s ground-floor dining room and bar. The menu, which highlights wood-fired fare with the globe-crossing flavours of Portugal and coastal Spain, feels earthy and creative. Salgados served at street level include Corner Inlet garfish and salted Murray cod and whipped potato croquettes with hot mustard, followed by grilled octopus and Goan curry. Wash it down with a Peach & Leite sour. Don’t leave without ordering a traditional Pasteis de Nata with cinnamon and the woodfired olive oil cheesecake with a sprinkling of sea salt. It serves two but you’ll be forgiven for indulging solo.

For a late-night rendezvous, descend to Mr Mills (courtesy of Ross and Sunny Lusted), the hotel’s moody basement bar, for Spanish-inspired snacks and artisanal cocktails best devoured in dimly lit booths under neon lights.

The service

The team are upbeat and enthusiastic, and the check-in is seamless. The staff know Melbourne, and with a finger on the pulse, they are quick to offer recommendations, from hole-in-the-wall coffee dens to hidden bars and quirky shops. And for everything else, the integrated in-room tablet makes communicating a breeze. On the ground floor, Marmelo’s friendly hosts are eager to make you comfortable. And while they don’t profess to be child-friendly (there are no high chairs in sight), they couldn’t be more willing to accommodate little ones even in the heat of dinner service.

The verdict

Melbourne Place feels refreshing and enticing. It hums with creativity and urban energy and its character is unmistakenly Melbourne. With a synergy of social spaces, curiosity, art and deeply comfortable, tactile rooms, you’ll want to languish here and Instagram everything. And while it may have forgone a wellness offering and a pool, the hotel brings its culinary offerings into focus with really, really good food, coffee (thanks to Veneziano coffee) and drinks, the true heroes of life in Melbourne.

Melbourne Place is located at 130 Russell St, Melbourne 3000, Australia; melbourneplace.com.au. Rates: from $362 AUD

Located in the Melbourne suburb of Clifton Hill, this suburban house, a new double home by Justin Mallia Architecture transforms an existing two-storey building into a series of courtyards and interlocking spaces. The square plot was previously home to a traditionally styled two-storey bungalow surrounded by a garden that had been hemmed in by neighbouring extensions.

A suburban house elevated through a series of courtyards and interlocking spaces

Mallia was tasked to build over the overshadowed garden and create a new separate dwelling, but the resulting project, known as Scarborough and Welkin, manages to eke out new pockets of outdoor space together with improved amenity and privacy. Careful planning and sun modelling allowed for the creation of angled new structure that appears to intersect the original house. Although set back from the street, the new addition doesn’t read like a separate structure, more like a deconstruction addition to the existing house.

Mallia’s intervention allowed the client to keep trees from the original garden, while roof gardens and terraces provide new – and much lighter – spaces for planting and growth. All this is linked with what the architect describes as a ‘complex circulation network’, manifesting in a series of paths and walkways that weave through the site, provide a separate and private first floor access to the second house, and span multiple levels to create dynamic and vivid living spaces.

The set back of the new house preserves the heritage character of Clifton Hill, without compromising its modernist credentials. To the right of the traditional wooden garden fence is a route leading to covered parking, whilst pushed up at the edge of the site is timber and steel arbour that slopes up towards the new house’s front door.

The ground floor of the original structure has been repurposed to include four bedrooms and an open plan kitchen and living area. The original entrance porch has been preserved, while later additions at the rear have been removed to accommodate the new house. ‘The building mass is permeated with cracks and fissures,’ Mallia explains, ‘these allow natural ventilation and filtered northern sunlight to penetrate throughout a vastly varying arrangement of spaces that are a delight and surprise to encounter.’

Upstairs, the original attic has been transformed into two bedrooms, a bathroom and utility space to serve the new house. Reached by a wood-lined staircase that marks the junction between old and new, the attic rooms are connected to the two levels of the main house, one of which serves as the kitchen diner and the other the living room and principal bedroom suite.

The roofscape of both houses appears to blend together, with separate terraces for each dwelling that step up and down across the site. The original chimney remains as a brick totem amidst the new planting, privacy screens, seating areas and steps that criss-cross the site. A solar array takes up the whole upper roof area of the new house, while the original terracotta tiles have been left as a backdrop to the roof garden.

In addition to the solar panels, the project includes battery storage, a heat pump for hot water, rainwater recovery and storage for irrigation and EV charging points. ‘Scarborough and Welkin creatively reinvents a flexible approach to modern housing, infilling a compromised gap in the urban fabric and achieving a balance that is bold and innovative while engaging respectfully and modestly with its surroundings,’ Mallia concludes.

JustinMallia.com

Patience often reveals silver linings, as Melbourne-based Flack Studio discovered when a glass fitting from a vintage wall sconce broke irreparably during an installation. With the 20 x 20cm back plate already in place, the studio’s founder, David Flack, called on local lighting designer Volker Haug for an urgent, site-specific solution. Haug was able to save the day, creating a bespoke fitting that seamlessly integrated with the existing design, but the story doesn’t end there. The incident sparked the idea for an altogether more expansive and ambitious collaboration.

Using the fixed 20 x 20cm back plate as a starting point, the two studios began to develop a lighting collection. Initially, the designers embraced this dimension as a constraint for exploring material and form. Through models and prototypes, they pushed creative boundaries, eventually loosening these parameters to enable a more organic and unconstrained design process. The resulting 12-piece collection is a celebration of the innate beauty of materials like brass, aluminium, glass and fibreglass.

They called it 'Me and You' – a reference to the spirit of collaboration and the relationship between light and space – and launched it in April during Milan Design Week 2024 as a limited collection. ‘Seeing our clients interact with this collection in Milan was really insightful,’ recalls Volker Haug, founder and director of Volker Haug Studio. ‘How they responded to the designs, the materials, and hearing how they planned to integrate the works with their own projects was really telling. From those conversations, we identified opportunities to build on the original collection.’

Without wasting time, the studios began creating six new designs, which launched last week in Volker Haug’s Melbourne showroom. The new additions include The 'Tux' pendant and 'Tux' wall light, which share softly curved fibreglass shades and brass binding details with the existing 'Tux' table lamp. The collection also features a smaller version of the bud-like 'Fleur' pendant and expanded configurations of the gridded 'Bruce' wall light in cast brass or aluminium.

‘“Me and You” is a collaboration that has always happened organically, and these beautiful new additions are no different,’ comments David Flack, founder and principal of Flack Studio. ‘For me, they really reflect the essence of the collection, which is the coming together of our respective disciplines – interior and industrial design.’

To mark the launch, Volker Haug invited Flack Studio to refresh its Melbourne showroom located in the brand's converted 1940s warehouse HQ. Set across the building's first floor, the showroom is accessed via the brand's ground floor design office and workshops. In a packing and dispatch area that opens out to an internal courtyard, a rear staircase leads up to the showroom and office with a sawtooth roof where pendants hang on long suspensions.

Building on the design studios' Milan showcase, a rug by local brand Halcyon Lake lies underfoot, the walls and ceiling are painted in an oxblood red gloss paint, and the space's south-facing windows are dressed with the same 7m curtain used in Milan. Works from local artists such as Lucina Lane, Spencer Lai, Mike Parr, Jahnne Pasco-White, Joseph Junmara and Mark Maurangi Carrol are hung on the walls.

'As a starting point we used the palette from our Milan show but it quickly became apparent the [earthy brown] colours didn’t work under the Australian light,' says Haug, who moved from Germany to Australia in the early 2000s and launched his own studio out of his garage in 2004. 'Instead, we went with a glossy oxblood red paint. We also reused the textiles and the wooden furniture from Milan which was custom designed and made to be shown in conjunction with the 'Me and You' collection. The space is the perfect setting to present our collaboration with Flack Studio in Melbourne.'

volkerhaug.com
flack.studio

For better or worse, work-related travel is back on the rise. And where beleaguered business road warriors once had to settle for dreary accommodation for those dreaded in-and-out meetings, more and more travel hubs are now responding with airport hotels that combine comfortably appointed, smart lodgings with well-equipped working spaces.

Tour ibis Styles Melbourne Airport hotel

Case in point is Melbourne Airport’s freshly minted ibis Styles hotel. Set within an easy five- to ten-minute walk from terminals 1 to 4, and billed as the airport’s first new-build hotel project in over two decades, the twin-branded property – each hotel actually occupies its own wing in an L-shaped block – is the work of Australian multidisciplinary studio, FK.

What immediately catches the eye is a striking ovaloid bronze membrane pierced with windows. Meant to evoke the impression of an aircraft wing, the appropriately stellar silhouette links the hotels at the same time as it encloses an expansive collection of spaces and services – not least co-working lounges and bookable meeting rooms operated by Accor, alongside restaurant, bar and cafe – aimed squarely at transiting and short-stay passengers.

Not that the MO here is all work and no play. As FK principal Sarah Hurst points out, ‘The aerofoil is a space where users can retreat from the pace and intensity of travel environments.’ And so, whilst the upper zones of the aerofoil are dedicated to business needs, the ground floor features a more recreational bent including a pool, sauna and treatment room, whilst a gym is located on the first floor.

The goal, FK’s partner James Pearce adds, was to create a space that goes beyond the traditional airport hotel experience – to wit, a village hub for the airport community to gather, rest, work and recharge. Swathed in natural materials such as leather and woven-grass rugs, ‘the design celebrates the wonder and excitement of travel, leaving a lasting impression’.

That’s one way, we imagine, to make your next lift-off from Melbourne an unexpectedly memorable one.

ibis Styles Melbourne Airport hotel is located at 1 Grants Rd, Melbourne Airport VIC 3045, Australia, melbourneairport.com.au

A new Melbourne family home on the Mornington Peninsula, Moat’s Corner is a multigenerational space that has been designed with an eye to the enduring style and appeal of classic West Coast midcentury modernist architecture. In fact, Vibe Design Group’s team had an American sojourn to explore some key influences.

Step inside this Melbourne family home

‘A midcentury modernist ethos encompassing honesty to materials, structural innovation and minimal ornamentation was at the core of the design,’ the Melbourne-based studio says. Founded by architect Michael O’Sullivan in 2006, Vibe Design Group specialises in residential work in and around the Australian city.

The Mornington Peninsula is a sought-after location and the new house sits on an impressive sloping site, surrounded by five acres of botanical gardens. The primary living spaces are raised up above the site, with an L-shaped plan flanked by decks on either side.

The living, dining and rumpus rooms are flanked by two wings of bedrooms, with three identical suites to the south, reached from a long library corridor on one side, with terrace access on the other. The principle bedroom occupies the eastern wing, a generously sized complex with a study, dressing room and bathroom.

The ground floor connects directly to the garden, with a large garage providing internal access to the house alongside an external staircase. A terrace leads to a pool to the south, with utility areas flanked by a gym, golf room and bar. This level also houses a self-contained two-bedroom annexe with its own private terrace.

‘By virtue of the house design, to live in the home is to co-exist with the garden,’ the studio says. ‘The modernist-inspired style opens itself up to the garden at every opportunity – there is not a space within the home deemed principal or secondary that does not acknowledge the life that surrounds it.’

Particular attention was paid to maximising the sense of transparency, and the decks that flank the living space become an extension of the room when the large glass sliding doors are opened. Frameless glass balustrading adds to this sense of transparency all year round.

The linear emphasis of the design is highlighted by a main façade with high and low level windows paired with reflective black panels, bringing in light while retaining privacy and a sense of mystery. Each structural component is edged in metal cladding and sits up a stone clad plinth, which in turn blends in with the contours and natural planting of the surrounding gardens.

VibeDesign.com.au

One neighbour refers to Northcote House as the ‘opera’ one. Accessed from an unassuming laneway in the Melbourne suburb of Northcote, it couldn’t be more different – in style, size, situation – to Australia’s more famous opera building, nearly 900km away in Sydney. Perhaps the home’s cantilevered, timber-strutted awning initiated the analogy – a grand gesture on a pint-sized block behind a row of shops.

Designed by architects David Leggett and Paul Loh as their own home, the house was years in the making and has received numerous accolades since its completion earlier this year, including an award from the Australian Institute of Architects.

Tour Northcote House in Melbourne

The couple spent considerable time prototyping materials for their build from a warehouse in the north-eastern Melbourne suburb of Preston, which is also the main base for their studio, LLDS. Both had studied and worked in London, but knew there was a ‘project’ waiting for them in Melbourne on their return. That project was building a new two-storey house on a 100 sq m plot that had previously been used as a car parking space. And as the duo’s Preston warehouse is dedicated to creating CNC materials, so their new house, shared with miniature schnauzer Merlin Junior, was always going to be a testing ground for experimentation.

The size of the site, a mere 4.6m in width, initially suggested the form – a Victorian terrace-style house that’s common both in London and Melbourne. However, unlike a Victorian terrace, with its ornate wrought-iron balustrades, the front façade features a cantilevered timber awning, sculpted using CNC technology. And unlike the party walls of most Victorian terraces, the walls enclosing this awning are made from chunky bluestone. ‘People have drawn comparisons to Victor Horta and Antoni Gaudí, but we see a connection to Josep Maria Jujol, who is seen by many as being a more restrained version of Gaudí,’ says Loh, who, like Leggett, is also a big fan of brutalist architecture. ‘We’ve always admired the work of Alison and Peter Smithson,’ adds the latter.

Unlike many contemporary homes that are rectilinear in form, Northcote House is layered both inside and out with curves. The rear elevation is covered in galvanised steel poles, which bend around windows and protrude, creating a ‘veil’ that both provides privacy and diffuses the harsher afternoon light. The poles also act as a trellis to support planting, eventually growing into a green façade. Another design cue can be found in Loh’s love of Issey Miyake’s pleated clothing, captured in the treatment of the concrete walls that are ridged or fluted.

Unlike its Victorian counterparts, the bedrooms are found on the lower level, along with a snug, with the top level given over to the kitchen and dining area. Pivotal to the design are 13 brass-lined skylights, placed in the ceiling’s alcove in varying depths. ‘We wanted to diffuse the overhead sunlight, as well as explore what could be achieved using CNC technology,’ says Leggett.

The two bedrooms on the lower level each come with an ensuite, lined in Corian, with ripple-edged floors, for grip, and ceilings that reflect the light. No space is wasted. A small passage outside one of the shower rooms is referred to as the ‘drying area’. Storage for both the bedrooms is kept to a minimum, with the main bedroom having built-in plywood joinery that necessitates the folding, rather than the hanging, of Loh’s prized Issey Miyake collection (more items can be stored under the bed).

A staircase, featuring a CNC-milled plywood balustrade and brass-clad treads, connects the two levels, wrapping around a curved snug (with its built-in day bed that appears to have been ‘chiselled’ from the wall cavity) and the 9m-high steel flue of the fireplace – the design was conceived to flood the house with natural light and to allow the warmth of the flue to permeate.

The couple spend most of the time either in the snug or around the kitchen’s Corian bench (a bespoke creation by LLDS along with the dining table and accompanying chairs), but on warmer days, they gravitate to the rooftop garden, which is loaded with native planting for thermal insulation. Accessed via an external spiral steel staircase, this area becomes almost like another room.

And while the spaces are modest (the footprint measures just 80 sq m), there’s a sense of joy and delight to be found at every turn. Note, for example, the handblown glass, portal-shaped window in the main bedroom, created by artist Ruth Allen, which includes an impression of pressed lips. Meanwhile, the ceiling in the main bedroom, with its scale-like textured concrete, shows the couple’s innovative advances with CNC technology. Northcote House continually changes with the seasons and can be closed or opened up entirely, allowing for cross ventilation and a strong connection to the elements, both natural and manmade. It’s a striking champion of small-footprint living.

llds.com.au

Bridging Boyd is a family home that addresses how to bring a valuable, but in-need-of-a-refresh, piece of modernist architecture into the 21st century. The home, originally named Richardson House, was designed in 1955 by renowned midcentury Australian architect Robin Boyd during his partnership with Grounds and Romberg. Situated in an inner Melbourne neighbourhood, the structure is now listed, having received a series of interventions by different past owners.

Bridging Boyd: modernism in the 21st century

Enter Melbourne-based architecture and design practice Jolson, the studio invited by the current residents to reimagine the precious home for their needs – yet still respecting Boyd's original principles and intention.

Stephen Jolson, practice founder and head, says: 'Boyd’s vision saw the limitations of the site as an opportunity to deliver a completely bespoke suburban home – a simple and clear design intent, embracing the landscape at all times. We harnessed the opportunity to pay homage to the influential design by adding a new but complementary architectural language that rehabilitates rather than compromises Boyd’s original intent.'

To that end, Jolson and his team looked at the existing structure, as well as Boyd's sense of simplicity, and stripped back some of the later additions that didn't work with the home's spirit – cleaning up the site to allow the property’s inherent minimalism to shine through.

The main entrance was moved and with it, a series of suspended entry bridges, decks and an entrance canopy were created, highlighting the way into the home and guiding visitors over the threshold. These elements and their curved shapes are juxtaposed against the historical structure's straight lines and boxy nature.

A three-storey 1982 renovation had transformed the interior, which has now been brought back closer to its original state. The large open-plan living space affords expansive views of a leafy garden through a glazed rear façade.

The heritage fabric was also updated. Ageing timber window frames were replaced with double-glazed, slim, steel-framed windows. Meanwhile, natural timber, stone and steel are the primary materials inside, giving a contemporary refresh to this 20th-century classic.

jolson.com.au

Just launched, The StandardX, Melbourne is an edgy addition to the hotel scene in Australia’s cultural capital and represents a double debut – it’s the first Standard International hotel in the country and the first StandardX to open worldwide. A ‘younger, rebellious sibling’ to the hotel brand, StandardX contains the signature DNA that guests know and love, positioned at a more accessible price point.

Led by an unpretentious and unconventional approach, the Melbourne hotel’s ethos nods to the brand’s roots on the Sunset Strip, Los Angeles, where the first Standard was envisioned by André Balazs and Ian Schrager in 1999, with culture, style, nightlife and design at its heart.

The StandardX, Melbourne

The StandardX, Melbourne embodies its context, in the creative suburb of Fitzroy, just ten minutes from the city centre by tram. The neighbourhood is at the epicentre of Melbourne’s artistic scene, and boasts eclectic shops and vibrant restaurants. The hotel’s industrial, rusted façade and curious red revolving entrance door are suitably avant garde.

Inside, the eight-storey, 125-room hotel presents industrial textures mixed with modern details, from the ground floor public spaces to the guests-only rooftop – where sweeping 270-degree views and a Mexican tapas and cocktail bar provide the ultimate summer hangout. Thai restaurant Bang, located on the ground floor, is open for all-day dining, along with the 24-hour concept store-slash-mini-bar, The Box, providing access to Victorian-made beverages, snacks and luxe amenities to enjoy in-room.

With architecture helmed by Woods Bagot (also behind the recent redesign of The Ghan train), the interior design was executed by Melbourne-based studio Hecker Guthrie. ‘We worked closely with both the local, and international Standard teams to create a design hotel that is both unique in its local context, but also resonates across the broader brand portfolio and international hotel landscape,’ say the Hecker Guthrie team.

The interiors champion local talent, such as Charles Sandford Woodturning & Joinery, designer Jordan Fleming, artist and designer Anna Varendorff, and artist Brodie Kokkinos, whose photographic work demands attention in the lounge Loft space.

What makes the new StandardX brand so original? On the evidence of Melbourne, a knack for attracting authentic creative talent contributes to a hotel experience that is anything but standard.

Find The StandardX, Melbourne at 62 Rose St, Fitzroy VIC 3065, Australia, standardx.com

Byron Bay’s newest hotel, Basq House, comes courtesy of Melbourne-based owners Matt Walsh and Shane Wilkinson, who tapped Matt Dalby of StudioFAB and architectural interior designer Léo Terrando to conceptualise the house-style sanctuary on Fletcher Lane.

Basq House, Byron Bay

Taking its cues from a traditional Moroccan riad, Basq House entices you into spaces that ‘encourage both exploration and connection’, says Léo Terrando, such as the central courtyard where a shimmering magnesium pool is ensconced by overhanging palms and a mass of cabanas and pink umbrellas bursting against the white rendered façade; the speakeasy lounge with a lived-in ‘Maralunga’ sofa by Vico Magisretti for Casina; the sun-drenched library; and a reception area that doubles as a bar come midday.

Inspired by ‘Fauvism and the vibrant energy of Bohemian style’, Terrando has fused cultural heritage with artistic innovation and tradition with modernity to captivate and inspire guests – a cluster of woven pendant lights from Tigmi Trading sways in the breeze on entry, sculptural ceramics sit on hefty hand-carved wooden tables, there is a scattering of South African tribal masks and bespoke Pampa rugs, and an original artwork by Bia Ferrari of a Brazillian rainforest splashed across three giant panels in the library.

Upstairs, the rooms, which range from intimate one-nighters to spacious pool-facing suites, favour woods in rich caramels with warm terracotta accents. Brushed gold hardware is paired with creamy stone and rattan, and soothing curves feature throughout. ‘The idea between the guest rooms and the library was to create a degree of contraction and expansion. To play with dark and light as you adjust your eyes from inside and outside,’ comments Dalby. A ‘Blondewood and Cashmere’ signature scent with notes of sandalwood and exotic spices and a curated playlist by MustardMusic lull you into paradisial poolside reverie through a stretching archway crafted from Amercian oak veneer.

At Basq House, small indulgences come in the form of Mr Smith hair and body care, and a minibar that touts local artisanal fare – Blackboard batch brew coffee roasted in Burleigh, Maybe Sammy cocktails, and craft beers by Earth Rising. Pegged for completion by the end of the year, Basq House’s rooftop will feature a wellness concept and bathhouse with far-reaching views of the ocean. Nearby, Byron Bay’s intriguing coastal village is best explored on a complimentary ‘Lekker’ bike with a candy-coloured surfboard tucked under your arm.

Basq House is located at 4 Fletcher Ln, Byron Bay NSW 2481, Australia, basqhouse.com.au

Melbourne Design Week 2024 once more provokes the design community in Australia to ‘Design the world you want’. The eighth edition stretches across 11 days (until 2 June 2024) with over 300 exhibitions, displays, symposiums and talks throughout metropolitan Melbourne and spreading into regional Victoria. Alongside big name speakers including Alice Rawsthorn and Tosin Oshinowo, the tenth annual Melbourne Art Book Fair and a pop-up vending machine serving a variety of insect-based snacks presented by lead partner NGV, Melbourne Design Week features a wealth of exhibitions scattered across the city, waiting to be discovered. 

Here is our list of the hottest exhibitions in the most interesting venues to hunt down.

Discover Melbourne Design Week 2024

(MATTERS) at Villa Alba 

Located in the leafy suburb of Kew, the late 19th century Villa Alba Museum has become a staple destination of Melbourne Design Week. This year’s presentation brings together some of Australia’s finest designers including Tom Fereday, Adam Goodrum, Object Density, Kate Benazi and Studio Tops, alongside the exhibition (SOME THINGS) showcasing material samples, interpreted tools and experimental forms.

Until 27 May

44 Walmer St, Kew VIC 3101

 Desire x Design at Useful Objects 

Located at new Melbourne Design Week hub 47 Easey Street – a recently completed Collingwood warehouse conversion by BAR Studio housing a range of creative studios – Useful Objects is a new gallery dedicated to collectible design. Its inaugural exhibition for Melbourne Design Week is exploring design’s relationship to desire. Through materials, ideas and forms, a group of designers including Danielle Brustman & Edward Linacre, Dean Toepfer and Elliot Bastianon question whether the object of desire is the catalyst or endpoint of the human impulse to consume.

Until 15 June

47 Easey Street

Squiggles and Cubes at the Tie Factory

Through site-specific interventions, Melbourne-based art Meagan Streader works with light to explore its role in how we experience and navigate space. For Melbourne Design Week she has collaborated with furniture designer Billy Horn to install a collection of functional sculptures in the Tie Factory, a historic Carlton warehouse. 

89 Faraday St, Carlton VIC 3053

Nostalgia at Abbotsford Convent

Melbourne-based creative studio Misc Objet are returning to Melbourne Design Week with a presentation of thirteen emerging artists and designers with diverse backgrounds in traditional and unconventional uses of materials and processes. Located in the Oratory in the historic Abbotsford Convent, the exhibition poses the question: How does looking back inspire and shape the future?

1 St Heliers St, Abbotsford VIC 3067

Until 26 May

 A&A at Tolarno Galleries 

Mercedes-Benz Australia presented the fifth annual Melbourne Design Week Award to A&A, a collaboration between Australian industrial designer Adam Goodrum and French marquetry artisan Arthur Seigneur, fast becoming regular fixtures at Melbourne Design Week. The Kissing Cabinet presents A&A’s latest work, a visually intriguing cabinet rendered in the centuries-old craft of straw marquetry that reveals hidden forms and secret compartments upon closer inspection.

level 5/104 Exhibition St, Melbourne VIC 3000

South Yarra House by Pandolfini Architects is noticeably restrained and deceptively simple, if you walk past, admiring the eclectic assortment of apartment buildings and Victorian-era homes on this busy street in Melbourne, Australia. But venture behind its bold, seemingly impenetrable gate and a second spirit reveals itself. The home’s full expression encompasses minimalist architecture, robust materiality and a design guided by the interplay between compression and expansion.

South Yarra House: a haven of urban tranquility 

To meet the owner’s request for privacy and tranquility, the home reveals little to the passerby beyond its monolithic concrete form, which hovers above the speckled concrete and metallic gate. The architects compare the front façade to a 'blank canvas' onto which the leafy trees lining the street cast ever-changing shadows throughout the day.

Upon passing through the gate, the home’s hidden personality unfolds. Led by Myles Baldwin Design, the landscape design and its dialogue with the architecture are integral to the residence. The home’s heavy concrete form appears airy as it floats above the front garden. A delicate assemblage of Mondrian-like windows etched in reeded glass adds a geometric playfulness hidden from the street.

Inside, the striking double-height foyer is defined by a sinuous concrete staircase, the first in a series of surprising structural forms within. Adjacent to the staircase is the protruding outline of an abstract form clad in clay-toned brick. With their distinct identities, the objects are akin to a series of sculptural pieces on permanent display. Meanwhile, the ground level’s polished concrete flooring is punctuated with large stones, forming a layer the architects describe as a 'metaphorical extension' of the garden.

The expansive foyer transitions into a tunnel-like hallway. Black timber battens line the walls and conceal the doors that open onto the various bedrooms. The effect enhances the feeling of privacy while exploring the dynamic between expansion and compression. Back in the foyer, the staircase ascends towards the kitchen, dining, and living space. 

Here, it’s revealed that the abstract brick form is in fact a discreet bar detailed with stone battens, walnut herringbone floors, and aged brass. Yet another sculptural volume demarcates the kitchen, appearing as a zigzagging stone block contrasted by the sleek materiality and curved object edges surrounding it. The main living space opens onto an ample terrace and pool overlooking the garden.

The home sprawls upwards across four floors, condensing its footprint to allow for ample garden space. Materials were selected with consideration for their longevity and minimal maintenance, ‘potentially the most consequential’ choice in terms of sustainable design. 

pandolfini.com.au

It’s fitting that Eclat reads more like a home than a standard workspace – located, as it is, in the largely residential suburb of Hawthorn in Melbourne. 'We wanted to use authentic, weighty, textural materials like timber and travertine,' says designer Jesse Hayes, director of Forme, who worked on the interiors. 'We were conscious of not using anything thin or industrial.'

Eclat: a workspace like home

Eclat’s concept is a hospitality infused workspace where culture, lifestyle and business converge. The property has been divided into three hubs: Parlor, a social area and private lounge; Galerie, an event space; and Bureau, a workspace with individual offices. Members also have access to a podcast studio and bookable meeting rooms. 

Inspired by a Nordic-meets-Parisian aesthetic with a muted canvas and herringbone floors, the interiors are pared back with a tight materials palette that includes American oak, buttery tan leathers, beige quartzite and bruise-toned marble. Timber furniture and lime wash wall finishes contribute to a feeling of calm, with atmospheric lighting by South Drawn, and Muuto ‘Strand’ pendant shades emitting a diffused glow.

Overhead lighting was key to the design resolution with a series of custom modular panels constructed and connected as curved, low-profile MDF units overlaid with fabric. Hayes says the floorplan’s biggest success is the hallway, a generous thoroughfare that 'prevents the interiors from feeling like a rabbit warren'.

Banks of glass-walled offices with edge-to-edge glazing line the central spine. Sheers are there for privacy, but most members opt to leave their doors open, leaking sunshine into the corridor and creating a sense of connection. 'It’s one of Eclat’s best features. Space is a luxury and we never want people to feel like they are compressed,' Hayes adds. 

All bureau suites come furnished in three sizes with Forme-designed desks, chairs and bookshelves, but there are ‘add ons’ available should members need to expand their amenities. 'We’ve designed a “kit of parts” so that everything can be streamlined rather than mumbo jumbo,' Hayes explains of the furniture that will eventually be available for the public to purchase. 

One of Eclat’s biggest accomplishments is its tech integration. All of the furniture has a cable management system so integrated that it’s almost invisible. There are 65-inch Samsung art frames available for Zoom calls, stadium speakers and intuitive digital whiteboards. Hayes, who has also worked as a software engineer, has developed an app that permits members to contact the concierge, invite guests and order directly to their desks. The company’s long-term plan is to open Eclat in other Australian cities, each with their local spin. 

eclat.com 

Australia’s three biennials – Biennale of Sydney, Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, and newcomer PHOTO International Festival of Photography, Melbourne – have joined forces to create the country’s first Art Grand Tour across Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, teaming up with major art events to collectively present the work of over 400 artists. 

Australia's first Art Grand Tour

The Art Grand Tour is a build-your-own art adventure that will see locals and visitors moving between the three cities. It kicked off at the end of February 2024, with the Melbourne Art Fair presenting solo shows and artist commissions from 60 of the region’s leading galleries and Indigenous art centres, and is followed by PHOTO 2024 International Festival of Photography on 1 March. 

Dedicated to contemporary practice, the photography biennial is marking its third edition. Addressing the theme The Future Is Shaped by Those Who Can See It, PHOTO 2024 features a trail of 100 free exhibitions and large-scale outdoor installations across Melbourne with artists including Ryan McGinley, Cao Fei, Omar Victor Diop, Carmen Winant and Edward Burtynsky. This year, PHOTO also celebrates three icons, Nan Goldin, Malick Sidibé and Rennie Ellis.

In Melbourne, the Art Grand Tour incorporated new commissions and works by 120 artists for NGV Triennial (opened in December and running until 7 April 2024) – with Yoko Ono, Elmgreen & Dragset and Tracey Emin amongst others – as well as MPavilion 10 by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Tadao Ando, an architectural commission of concrete minimalist perfection in Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Gardens.

In South Australia, the 18th Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art opens concurrently on 1 March. Curated by José Da Silva and titled Inner Sanctum, the biennial showcases 24 artists and poets across exhibitions, performances and talks that explore our engagement with the world and each other. The Adelaide Biennial is part of the Adelaide Festival. Curated by artistic director Ruth Mackenzie CBE, and chief executive Kath M Mainland CBE, 2024’s Adelaide Festival features 64 events including Australian Premieres by Marina Abramović, Laurie Andersen and Víkingur Ólafsson. 

The Biennale of Sydney opens to the public on 9 March and its 50th anniversary year is led by artistic directors Cosmin Costinaș and Inti Guerrero. Under the theme Ten Thousand Suns, dynamic artworks, large-scale installations and site-specific projects by 88 artists and collectives from 47 countries will be presented across a number of landmark galleries including, for the first time, at the recently restored White Bay Power Station. In association with the biennale, the Sydney Opera House will be illuminated every night after sunset with artwork projected onto its sails. 

Visitors to Sydney will also be able to see the exhibition ‘Louise Bourgeois: Has the Day Invaded the Night or Has the Night Invaded the Day?’, the artist’s largest survey to date in Australia and the first monographic exhibition staged in the Art Gallery of New South Wales’ new SANAA-designed building, Sydney Modern. 

Rhana Devenport, director, Art Gallery of South Australia, is one arts leader planning to visit all three cities. ‘It’s a rare opportunity to experience these exemplary gatherings of art that push boundaries, and alter your perceptions, and create new memories,’ she says. With international curators and collectors jetting into Australia for this art extravaganza, the Art Grand Tour marks a distinct turning point for the country’s relationship with the global arts community.

Biennale of Sydney, multiple venues, 9 March  – 10 June 2024
Adelaide Biennale of Australian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia, 1 March – 2 June 2024
The Melbourne Art Fair ran from 22 – 25 February 2024
NGV Triennial, NGV International, until 7 April 2024

Melbourne’s Port Phillip Bay is a large natural harbour just south of the city, enclosed by the Mornington and Bellarine Peninsulas. Crossing this stretch of water more than ten times each day is Searoad Ferries’ MV Queenscliffe, a sturdy car-and-passenger ferry that is a familiar sight for both locals and tourists.

The vessel has now been given a complete overhaul courtesy of local practice Lucy Marczyk Design Studio, whose recent Solis Houseboat project was an earlier foray into nautical design.

Inside MV Queenscliff

A ferry is a very different beast, however, particularly a 60m vessel capable of carrying 700 passengers. As well as making the ferry an ambassador for the region, the new MV Queenscliff interiors also needed to be hard-wearing; the boat does up to 4,000 crossings each year, sailing from the peninsula villages of Queenscliff to Sorrento.

Marczyk and her team have assembled a specification that combines high-quality contemporary furniture with recycled elements, bold graphics, and nautically themed colours. ‘We aimed to debark from the functional and practical ambiance traditionally found in ferry vessels to create an engaging experience for passengers,’ Marczyk says. ‘It’s an experience that creates a sense of place. And one that is uniquely Australian.’

As well as an onboard café serving fresh food from both peninsulas, the fit-out includes a children’s play area and revived bathrooms, giving what the designers describe as a ‘nod to luxury cruise liners featuring a tongue-in-cheek laminate-look marble, complemented with backlit porthole mirrors, and French navy compact laminate partitions’.

The glamour continues with the furniture specification, which includes Fritz Hansen ‘Nap’ chairs, Emeco ‘1 Inch’ chairs by Jasper Morrison, and Philippe Starck brushed-aluminium stools, as well as Konstantin Grcic’s ‘Bell’ chairs from Magis, Mario Bellini’s ‘Bellini’ chair from Heller, and Flos ‘Mayday’ lights. The designers also included Bjarke Ingels Group’s ‘Gople’ lamp for Artemide.

Custom colours throughout make references to maritime culture and local navigational landmarks, with interactive digital information screens to show passengers the area. Marczyk’s studio designed the bespoke latitude and longitude Axminster carpet as well as the bespoke banquet seating, while a locally sourced dinghy has been repurposed as part of the play area. The bench seating is made from recycled pier timbers, taken from old wharves in the bay.

The refreshed and revived MV Queenscliff is now sailing from a new award-winning terminal building, designed by F2 Architecture, which makes a dramatic statement with its curved metal roofs above the dunes. 

Lucy Marczyk Design Studio, LucyMarczyk.com, @LucyMarczyk

F2 Architecture, F2Architecture.com.au

MV Queenscliff is operated by Searoad Ferries, Searoad.com.au

The newly opened Northcote Aquatic Recreation Centre (NARC) in Melbourne is a community leisure centre that wants for nothing when compared with the finest hotel pools. The facility, which has just opened its doors to a design by locally based architecture studio Warren and Mahoney, marks a departure for aquatic centres of its kind. 

Northcote Aquatic Recreation Centre

The expansive, 8,100 sq m centre includes an indoor learn-to-swim pool, a 25m lap pool, a kids splash park, an adult bathing area with sauna and steam rooms, a café, separate spaces for group exercise, as well as a 50m outdoor pool set against the foliage of native trees and the Northcote Aquatic Recreation Centre's minimalist architecture volumes. 

Meanwhile, the complex's sleek looks, accented by a striking timber beam ceiling over its indoor water bodies, are supported by sustainable architecture decisions. Electrical heat pumps harness the sun and provide renewable energy during the day; while a Renewable Power Purchasing Agreement (PPA) covers power sourcing in the evenings.

The entire facility is currently targeting a 6 Star Green Star rating for environmental responsibility. Meanwhile, social inclusion was another key point to consider, the architects highlight.

'Accessibility and balance are ideas that sit at the heart of this design and have been executed brilliantly by our construction partners, KANE. The breadth of facilities, the layout – including a specific adult-only bathing area, expansive foyer café and sprawling grounds surrounding the outdoor pool – enables this centre to truly act as a community hub,' says Warren and Mahoney associate principal and project architect, Brett Diprose. 

'Landscaping, delivered by Normark Landscapes and designed by Arcadia Landscape Architecture, are meticulously delivered. Internally, the selected materials offer a cool, light-colour palette to create a relaxing environment. The children's splash park features playful platypus motifs, within a stylised riparian environment to create a brightly coloured playground.'

He continues: 'The commitment to the ecological balance is symbolically marked with the large kingfisher on the external façade of the building. During our project consultation with Wurundjeri elders [the project development included consultation with the traditional owners of the land – the Aboriginal elders from the Wurundjeri people], we came to learn of how the kingfishers will select their home; they will only create a nest in a place where there is ecological balance. And that is what the design and operations of this facility aims to deliver.'

Balancing an environmentally friendly approach, with social inclusion and a pared down, polished aesthetic, the Northcote Aquatic Recreation Centre is ready to receive its region's first summer guests. 

warrenandmahoney.com

Brutalist yet homely, that’s just how interior design studio Fiona Lynch Office envisioned St Ali & The Queen, a newly opened hospitality concept within the Munro Site community hub, part of Melbourne’s revitalised Queen Victoria Market. This all-day local providore and café – also a cocktail bar by night – is the result of the collaboration between artisanal coffee roaster St Ali and award-winning mixologist Orlando Marzo.

St Ali & The Queen by Fiona Lynch Office

Many storied cultural influences envelop St Ali & The Queen – the market and food hall’s heritage and vibrant sense of community, Melbourne’s modern edge and passionate coffee culture, the feeling of warm European hospitality and the client’s Italian roots among them. Taking a cue from these, the space features an inviting deli, a coffee window for takeaways, a sociable counter bar, relaxed café seating indoors, and tables spilling outside to the pavement.

The design elements that make up the space, which embrace flow for staff and diverse guest encounters, consist primarily of polished raw materials and detailed joinery. ‘We wanted to embrace the traditional food hall’s classic design language of box aluminium stalls and channel its raw, brutalist feel into our design while also creating a space that cultivates the spirit and warmth of European hospitality,’ shares Fiona Lynch.

Complementing the interior’s soaring arched industrial windows and exposed concrete floors by Six Degrees Architects are raw wood, stone and brass. The furniture was custom-designed by Lynch and crafted by Geelong-based Ross Thompson using sustainable Oregon timber, as seen across the face of the bar and for high-top tables, sofas, bar stools and portable low stools.

This tactility and inviting sense of community are further carried out throughout the open plan via European-style leather-upholstered benches overlooking the market and the feature lighting, such as the counter lamps designed by Fiona Lynch and made by Melbourne’s Volker Haug, and a wall lamp by Milanese architect Paolo Rizzatto for Flos.

Italian marble and blocks of travertine and Afrodite stone on the counter, along with honeyed wood shades, add sophistication to the bar and help transition the space from a modern coffee shop by day to a sleek neighbourhood bar by night.

fionalynch.com.au

stali.com.au

Fisher House, a work by legendary Australian designer Alistair Knox, has got a new lease of life thanks to architect Adriana Hanna, who headed a redesign of the midcentury home for its new owners. Set in Melbourne's suburb of Warrandyte, the house still maintains its original low-key, modernist architecture glory, but also features a few, gentle, 21st-century twists that make it a comfortable, practical and contemporary family home. 

Fisher House: breathing new life to modernist architecture

'I felt that my personal responsibility as an architect was to restore and preserve the heritage,' says Hanna. 'So often, these homes are made to be contemporary, which is at odds and incoherent with the aspirations of the era.'  

The home was built in 1969, and while recent owners kept it largely untouched and well maintained, when its new residents acquired it, they longed for a subtle refresh that would celebrate its midcentury bones but also bring a more contemporary flow to its interior. 

Drawing on the original materials, Hanna used timber and bricks extensively, wrapping the space in warmth and textured yet minimalist surfaces, equipped for daily family life. 

For example, spotted gum joinery, brick flooring and new but seamlessly integrated Fisher & Paykel appliances in the kitchen, allow for 21st-century creature comforts without compromising the building's distinct character.

Crafting everything in a such a streamlined, discreet aesthetic was paramount for the team, as everyone was keen to preserve the historical identity of the home and Knox's creative intention. 

The midcentury designer, builder, environmentalist and landscape architect often worked with modest, low volumes and natural materials – such as mud brick – as well as modular buildings. He was known as an advocate for an alternate lifestyle that is gentle and close to nature. 

'One of the first things I said to Adriana was that we didn’t want to see busy, unnecessary elements, so being able to achieve that was very satisfying,' say the owners.

kennedynolan.com.au

Studio Edwards has designed a zero-waste workspace in Melbourne for B Corp registered creative agency Today Design. Client and architect were united in their 'unwavering' quest to create a piece of contemporary sustainable architecture in the office interior for the agency – its headquarters located in a 12-storey office block in the neighbourhood of Collingwood, within the traditional lands of the Wurundjeri/Woiwurrung people of the Kulin Nation.

Designing a zero-waste workspace

In order to achieve their goal, the architects, headed by studio founders Ben Edwards and Nancy Beka, opted to work entirely with readily available materials. There are no applied finishes in sight, and everything is placed fluidly around the existing building's rigid rectilinear column grid.

'This means no plasterboard, no laminate, and no MDF. All interior walls based on a standard material sheet size of 2.4m in height, minimising the need for cutting. Walls are crafted from timber framing and OSB board together with translucent corrugated sheeting that bathes the space in natural light while preserving privacy,' write the architects. 

Sliding elements, fabrics and hinged panels serve as space dividers where and when needed. This results in a flowing interior with strong material textures and colour pops which bring vibrancy and a natural element where everything feels layered and tactile. 

In terms of the workplace arrangements, large meeting tables and communal desk areas are balanced by private booths and dedicated video conferencing suites. Materiality takes centre stage everywhere, highlighting the project's innovative approach. 

'Corrugated translucent panels wrap the meeting spaces, opening into an informal lounge/work area with scaffolded lounge modules that span the northern perimeter, providing a relaxed workspace with scenic views,' the architects continued. 

'These modules are enveloped in translucent recycled sail cloth screens, offering privacy while allowing natural light to permeate.'

It all is testament to a harmonious client and architect collaboration, where a common goal energised and motivated the entire team. It is, hopefully, a 'space where creativity thrives in harmony with the environment,' they all agree. 

studio-edwards.com 

Melbourne’s third NGV Triennial has opened, a snapshot of new and recent art, design and architecture from around the world as seen through the work of over 120 artists, designers and collectives. Loosely curated across three themes – Magic, Matter and Memory – NGV Triennial is a vast art experience that reads as a collective curatorial statement on contemporary interests.

Inside Melbourne NGV Triennial 2023

Visitors are greeted before they enter the building by a number of public artworks including a billboard by Yoko Ono declaring ‘I LOVE YOU EARTH’, David Shrigley’s phallic thumbs-up sculpture and, installed in the moat outside NGV, a monumental bronze eel trap by Wurundjeri artist Aunty Kim Wandin that references the craft and connections to land and water of local First Peoples.

Inside, NGV’s curatorial team have installed a vast and eclectic collection of recent acquisitions, new commissions and artworks that speak to the times we are living in. In the foyer, two large-scale sculptures by Thomas J Price highlight and seek to help correct the inadequate and prejudiced representations of Black people in art and the media. 

Some artists have their work installed in standalone galleries – such as the standout installation Mun-dirra, a monumental 100m-long woven fish fence which took 13 women artists from the Burarra language group working with three apprentices two years to create. A room by Elmgreen & Dragset brings together four works from across their practice, including What’s left, fig. 2, where a realistic sculpture of a man hangs singlehandedly from a tightrope, and The Balcony, where a metallic figure leans over the balcony, apparently photographing visitors. 

Elsewhere, works are interspersed in NGV’s permanent collections of art, design and fashion. Works by Tracey Emin include a 5m-high text-based neon light installation, while Agnieszka Pilat presents AI-enabled robot dogs that have been trained to paint.

Visitors that make it into NGV’s garden will find Nic Brunsdon’s experimental architectural commission (This is) Air that changes shape throughout the day as it expands and releases air, to draw attention to the universal act of breathing. It is hard to take in NGV Triennial in one visit, partly due to the expansive nature of the exhibition and partly due to the huge crowds it attracts.

3 December 2023 – 7 April 2024 at NGV International, Melbourne, ngv.vic.gov.au

Photo 2024 International Festival of Photography, Australia’s largest photography festival, will be the third edition of the event. The biennial, which will be taking place 1-24 March 2024, will unite 100 free exhibitions and outdoor art installations across Melbourne and Victoria.

Artists from around the world will consider alternative realities and parallel futures in this edition’s theme, ‘The Future Is Shaped by Those Who Can See It’. Outdoor displays of work will be held across Melbourne at locations including Parliament of Victoria, St Paul’s Cathedral and Fed Square, while a celebration of local artists is encompassed in contributions from Jemima Wyman (palawa), Angela Tiatia, Amos Gebhardt, Zoe Croggon, Elisa Carmichael (Quandamooka), Sammaneh Pourshafighi, Jo Duck and Kenton/Davey. 

What to expect at Photo 2024

‘An exciting new addition this year for Photo 2024 is “Queer Photo”, a new festival-within-a-festival that brings together 17 important LGBTQ+ voices,’ curator Brendan McCleary tells us. ‘Taking place across galleries, parks, and a historic mansion in Melbourne’s west, the programme brings together exclusive presentations by international artists such as Sunil Gupta, Clifford Prince King, and Aotearoa collective FAFSWAG, alongside new commissions by exciting local artists including Lilah Benetti and Ngarigo man Peter Waples-Crowe. People will be able to experience Jake Elwes’ AI-generated drag queens alongside queer Wiradjuri woman Karla Dickens’ exploration of race, gender and injustice, Daniel Jack Lyon’s documentation of queer youth in the Amazon and the world premiere of Vic Bakin’s heartfelt portraits of his queer community in Kyiv, Ukraine, taken in a time of conflict that threatens their very existence.’

They join artists including Ryan McGinley (USA), Omar Victor Diop (Senegal), Carmen Winant (USA), Edward Burtynsky (Canada), Mous Lamrabat (Morocco), Candice Breitz (South Africa), Cao Fei (China), and CAMP (India), alongside established names Nan Goldin (USA), Malick Sidibé (Mali) and Rennie Ellis (Australia), in the immersive programme, which also includes talks, film screenings and workshops.

‘Throughout March, Melbourne will become a vast open-air gallery of photography,’ adds associate curator Pippa Milne. ‘Curating the programme, we looked to artists who are envisioning various futures through fascinating and memorable lenses. Highlights include a trail of enormous lightboxes that will illuminate the banks of the Birrarung (Yarra River) with striking collages of global demonstrations by Jemima Wyman, Indigenous superheroes by Tony Albert and ancestral beings by Amos Gebhardt. In the Parliament Precinct, there are a number of installations at landmark sites including “Uncanny Valley: Photography, Tech and the Hyperreal”, an exhibition outside the Old Treasury Building that features portraits of cyborgs alongside portraits by cyborgs, and an exhibition in Parliament Gardens looking at the future of water from a First Nations’ perspective. We also get to celebrate some of the biggest icons of photography at Photo 2024, with an epic 20m installation by Nan Goldin, and the first Australian exhibition of Malick Sidibé.’

Photo 2024 International Festival of Photography will return for its third edition from 1 to 24 March 2024

photo.org.au

‘Pierre Bonnard: Designed by India Mahdavi’ is the latest blockbuster exhibition at Melbourne’s NGV, and creates an unlikely pairing between the French post-impressionist painter and the Tehran-born architect and designer – and winner of Designer of the Year at the 2023 Wallpaper* Design Awards.

Presented in collaboration with Musée d'Orsay, NGV’s exhibition features more than 100 works by Pierre Bonnard that illustrate late-19th and early-20th-century France, among them paintings, drawings, prints, photographs and decorative objects. However, it is arguably Mahdavi’s captivating scenography that steals the show.

Mahdavi explodes details from Bonnard’s works and recreates his iridescent palette as psychedelic wallpapers, creating an immersive environment within which to introduce Bonnard to a new generation. Mahdavi has also incorporated other domestic details into the exhibition design to evoke the wistful domestic intimacy for which Bonnard is renowned, such as window openings that frame the view into adjacent galleries and bespoke furniture for lounging. 

The exhibition also features early cinema by the Lumière brothers, and artworks by Bonnard’s contemporaries, including Maurice Denis, Félix Vallotton and Édouard Vuillard. 

‘Pierre Bonnard: Designed by India Mahdavi ’is on view until 8 October 2023

National Gallery of Victoria - NGV
180 St Kilda Road
Melbourne

ngv.vic.gov.au

Melbourne Design Week 2023 marks the festival's seventh edition (18 – 28 May 2023), with exhibitions and events that shine a spotlight on excellence in Australian design and architecture. Building on the ideas unveiled during previous iterations of the programme, the 2023 edition continues to invite designers to ‘Design The World You Want’, with a mix of exhibitions, events, symposiums and film screenings. 

Here, Wallpaper’s Australia Editor Elias Redstone offers his recommendations to help you navigate the expansive programme.  

MELBOURNE DESIGN WEEK 2023: WHAT TO SEE IN THE CITY

Melbourne Design Fair

Following its launch last year, Melbourne Design Fair is now cementing its place at the spiritual and commercial heart of Melbourne Design Week with an expanded programme that sees the fair take up residency at Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.

New additions include a ‘Discovery’ section curated by NGV, and ‘Focus’, an exhibition highlighting the work of five female Australian designers: Helen Britton, Emma Jackson, Nicolette Johnson, Jessica Murtagh and Paula Savage, who has been awarded the 2023 Melbourne Design Week Award.

Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre
18-21 May

Florescence

The ‘Florescence Collection’ continues the experiments with contemporary applications for straw marquetry by A&A, the collaboration between Australian industrial designer Adam Goodrum and French marquetry artisan Arthur Seigneur, who is now based in Melbourne. The designers are presenting a hemispheric table and three brightly coloured pods composed of intersecting sphericons that are inspired by the action of a flower bud opening, known as anthesis. 

Tolarno Galleries
Until 27 May 2023

Sense of Direction

Presented in the historic Chapter House, ‘Sense of Direction’ is an installation of rugs and clocks by artist Brendan Huntley in collaboration with fashion label Alpha60. The exhibition is a meditation on personal transformation and at its centre is a show-stopping 32-meter-long rug that features an array of motifs including faces, celestial beings, clocks, butterflies, and eyes. 

Alpha60 Chapter House
19 – 28 May

Radical Utopia: An Archaeology Of A Creative City

Curated by Harriet Edquist and Helen Stuckey, ‘Radical Utopia’ revisits 1980s Melbourne to explore how design and activism shaped the contemporary city’s status as a cultural hub. The exhibition features the studios, places, and spectacles where design was debated and produced, including nightclubs, magazines, gaming labs and graphic design collectives.

RMIT Gallery
Until 27 May

Pieces of Peace

Su san Cohn’s latest exhibition ‘Pieces of Peace’ explores how jewellery can promote peace between humans, while examining the impact of robotic industrial production on handmaking in the age of automation. The project seeks to subvert the idea of machines being used to create components for warfare by using them to produce peace offerings in the form of tokens and wearable craft.

Anna Schwartz Gallery
20 May – 24 June

Found In Translation 

The exhibition ‘Found In Translation’ brings together images of Japanese architecture, infrastructure and landscapes by Melbourne-based photographer Rohan Hutchison with furniture from Karimoku Case Study and Ishinomaki Laboratory, which was founded as a workshop for people devastated by the 2011 tsunami. Collectively the objects on display suggest how Japan’s environment influences the design of objects and spaces.

Apato
18 – 28 May

Hard

Returning for its second year, ‘Hard’ invites queer creatives from across Australia to incorporate found materials into new works, using their surroundings as inspiration. Curated by Adelaide-based designer Calum Hurley, ‘Hard’ references both queer sexuality and the Australian ritual of collecting hard rubbish left kerbside after dark.

Wood Street Gallery
18 – 21 May

Trade Between

‘Trade Between’ is the first project by Do Works, a platform to explore new ideas through creative furniture collaborations. The exhibition features work by emerging architects and designers Angus Grant, Annie Paxton, Dalton Stewart and Shalini Rautela, who have created furniture that seeks to transcend the mundane through celebrating aesthetic forms.

Nicholas Building
18-28 May

Melbourne Art Book Fair

A programme of talks, launches, workshops, exhibitions, and performances is taking place across Melbourne and cities in regional Victoria, including at the Centre for Contemporary Photography, Perimeter Books, and Uro Publications. The focal point of the Art Book Fair will be the gathering of over 80 publishers, artists and bookmakers for the stallholder fair at NGV from 19 to 21 May.

Multiple venues
18 – 28 May

The MPavilion 2023 marks a landmark anniversary for the annual Australian celebration of architecture taking place in Melbourne's Queen Victoria Gardens. This year’s structure, fittingly officially titled 'MPavilion 10' and set to open in the Australian summer of this year, will be the tenth pavilion to launch to the public, bringing contemporary architecture and discussions about culture and the built environment to the fore. And Japanese architecture master Tadao Ando was called upon to make happen – designing this tenth-anniversary MPavilion 2023 for the Naomi Milgrom Foundation. 

Tadao Ando’s MPavilion 2023

'The design for the MPavilion began with a desire to find a scene of eternity within the oasis of Melbourne, the Queen Victoria Gardens. Eternal, not in material or structure, but in the memory of a landscape that will continue to live in people’s hearts,' said Ando in a statement, revealing his plans for the MPavilion 2023. 'To reflect the lively nature of the site, like a blank canvas, I imagined an architecture of emptiness. Pure geometry outlines the composition of this design. Ancient Egyptians used fundamental geometry to create ordered spaces and structures in the natural world.'

Designed with openness, connectivity and nature in mind, the structure at the same time displays Ando's signature minimalist approach. This seemingly simple architecture and the serenity it evokes was part of the architect's plan. 

'Geometry formed the foundation of philosophical study in ancient Greece. It is the expression of human reason and the pursuit of ethereal space. With the circle and square, emptiness is given form,' Ando continued in his statement. 'The emptiness, in its silence, lets the light and wind enter and breathe life into the space. The emptiness provokes a chance encounter between individuals and engenders dialogues. The emptiness resonates with the environment, becomes one with the garden, and blossoms into a microcosmos of infinite creativity.'

mpavilion.org 

tadao-ando.com 

Developed by ethical property firm OUTsideIN, the suburban apartment building Barkly Street Apartments is a fine example of creative reuse in action. Its 11 units are fitted into a 1930s-era warehouse, with the addition of a new second floor that’s set back from the handsome original brick façade. At the same time, the scheme promotes both quality design in the domestic realm, and a sustainable architecture approach. 

A suburban apartment building led by design and sustainability

The largest three-bed unit is on the ground floor, alongside a one-bed, with two more one-bed and two two-bed apartments on the first floor, alongside five three-bed maisonettes, all of which extend into the new second floor structure.

The intention was to emphasise the potential of ‘low-energy, low-waste’ living, with features and space given over to support sustainable and healthy lifestyles. These include secure bicycle parking for all residents, a large solar array along with a 100 per cent renewable green energy supplier. All appliances are electric, and the hot water is on a centralised system with an efficient heat pump. 

Interior finishes are minimal and low-key, using recycled or FSC-certified timber throughout, along with provision for drought-resistant planting, rainwater harvesting, passive ventilation to nearly every apartment and fixed sunshades. Although car-parking is provided, each spot has its own charge point to encourage EV ownership. 

The common areas also include extensive planting, as well as individual lightwells and courts that bring daylight deep into the plan of the long, linear apartment layouts. The atrium reaches into the heart of the apartment block. All finishes are durable and hard-wearing, designed to minimise the cost of maintenance.

The original brick shell was preserved, maintaining the low-rise character of Brunswick, with apartment layouts that evoke the floorplans of local terrace housing. Through exceptional attention to detail, the architects have provided an attractive and elegant model for living sustainably in the city. 

Breathe.com.au

Dreamerlab.com.au

Hideaway House, an expanded family house in Melbourne, is notable for its incorporation of a subterranean pool and bar area. Designed by architecture and interior design practice Cera Stribley, the extension was achieved by incorporating an adjacent plot, massively increasing the available space for work and play in the three-storey family house.

Hideaway House by Cera Stribley

‘Our brief was to create spaces that would enhance the family’s time together, while giving the kids ample space to play and the adults space to unwind and entertain,’ Cera Stribley’s head of interior design, Jessica Coulter, explains. 

The architects set about excavating the adjacent plot to create an expansive below-ground living space. The project incorporates an indoor lap pool, together with a dedicated golf room and gym, as well as an upscale, bespoke basement bar and lounge.

The original modern house was also reconfigured, with a brand-new guest suite replacing the old garage, and a below-ground connection to the new extension. ‘The new basement is really the “adults’ lair”,’ says Coulter, ‘so we wanted it to feel sophisticated and moody. Think: Mad Men meets Batcave.’

Above the expansive new basement is a tennis court, a useful addition to the property, but one that precluded the addition of any skylights into the pool and lounge areas. Instead, a long lightwell was created at the north edge of the site, faced in concrete and planted at basement level to create a wash of natural light and vegetation behind a glazed façade. Light is further manipulated by the pool water. Landscape design was by Eckersley Garden.

Says the firm’s Steve Woo, ‘You can be swimming in the pool, or lounging in the bar, and feel totally secluded yet, at the same time, connected to nature and able to witness the passing of weather and time through the light void.'

Glazing is minimal and lies flush with the grey concrete and rendered surfaces inside and outside the basement. All fixtures and fittings are bespoke, from the wine cellar to the marble bar, the cantilevered fireplace and the temple-like alcoves in the bathrooms. TVs and other messy accoutrements of family life are shuttered away within custom joinery when not in use. 

The Hideaway House has revitalised this suburban plot, bringing a new lease of life to a family home without altering the silhouette or scale of the existing structure.

C-S.com.au 

Park House, once a Presbyterian manse, was built in 1856 in the Williamstown area of Melbourne. One of city's oldest surviving houses, it is suitably determined and rugged, modest and squat. Local architecture firm Pleysier Perkins was charged by the house’s new owners with its sensitive restoration and finding space for a discreet but significant and indulgence-friendly extension.

The architects drew up plans for a light-filled, three-story (one underground) concrete box, housing extra bedrooms, living spaces, a wine cellar, a curing room, a gym, and a kitchen fit and large enough for less parsimonious preparations, all largely hidden behind the two-storey blue stone original dwelling and set in lush planting.  

Step inside this modern Park House

While construction was under way, Melbourne-based interior design and architecture studio Mim Design was brought on board to oversee a happy marriage of old and new. It was a project that grew in scope says Miriam (Mim) Fanning, principal of Mim Designs: 'What started as an internal review soon evolved into a significant interior architecture project prioritising spatial planning through to full interior detailing throughout the heritage and new part of the home. We followed through with the completion of a full furniture, artwork and accessories package.'

Fanning and team devised a material palette that echoes the rough and tumble of the original bluestone facade, using cut and chiselled stone in charcoals and dove greys, designed to age gracefully and complementing spans of raw concrete. These are softened by timber panelling, while sculptural pieces, art-topped plinths and island benches suggest a well-appointed private gallery. 

The real eye-catchers of the extension, though, are a gently spiralling staircase in blackened metal and a double-height fireplace in dark grey quartzite. The centrepiece kitchen – the new owners are enthusiastic entertainers – matches chiselled and hammered grey marble with black-stained American oak cabinetry and gunmetal detailing and boasts a striking grey leather banquette. The more modest rooms of the original houses, meanwhile, are imagined as intimate retreats, employing organic forms and a soapier colour scheme. 

The new owners, and their teams of architects and designers, were determined that the quality of materials, craft and attention to detail bring cohesion to the project. 'Each and every trade worked tirelessly to create a home that would continue to stand in the community as a pillar of heritage preservation, while addressing the contemporary needs of a hard-working and experiential home,' says Mim Design’s creative director Emma Mahlook. 

The move between old and new is more smooth transition than unnerving jolt. And while the new addition may not please hard-line preservationists, the original house has been restored with care, not as a museum piece but as part of a home which offers worldly pleasures and meditative moments. 'It was an interesting balancing act in restraint and abundance,' says Lisa Ransom, associate at Mim Design.

mimdesign.com.au

pleysierperkins.com.au

MPavilion 2022 has opened to the public, launching today at Melbourne's Queen Victoria Gardens – and this year, it brings a splash of colour and an ethereal quality to the park's greenery, thanks to its bespoke design by Bangkok-based architecture studio All(zone), led by design director Rachaporn Choochuey. 

MPavilion 2022 by All(zone)

MPavilion 2022, under Choochuey's direction, is fun and engaging, while also bringing something new to the table – as it experiments with materials never before used in Australia. Conceived to celebrate the outdoors, as well as the idea of community and coming together, the structure features a distinctive canopy, made of fabric and expert tensile architecture. Part of the material is crafted from a cutting-edge STFE membrane supplied by French manufacturer Serge Ferrari, which is as transparent as glass but ten times lighter, its creators explain. Its use is a first for the country. 

'Working on the MPavilion project with so many talented individuals has been an incredible journey. MPavilion is special because even though it’s called a temporary pavilion, it’s actually even more complex than a building. We focused on how the MPavilion would accommodate lots of different activities, and the engineering and manufacturing has been a huge step forward for us in understanding the possibilities of fabric-based architecture,' says Choochuey.

Beyond its material innovations, the pavilion features a bottom layer made of a waffle of coloured fabric. It's light and moves with the breeze, filtering the sunlight and mimicking the gentle rustle of tree leaves. Underneath it sits a kiosk, painted with carefully selected Dulux shades. 

'When I first met Rachaporn and her design team, I quickly realised that we shared goals of harnessing architecture and design to make the world a better place for the future. Focused on solutions for upcycling and reusing buildings, sites and materials, All(zone)’s lightweight interventions complement MPavilion’s vision of fostering dialogue on how design and architecture can help create better cities for the people who live in them,' says Naomi Milgrom Foundation founder and the project's commissioner Naomi Milgrom. 

mpavilion.org 

allzonedesignall.com 

Part of a Victorian inner city Melbourne property, Pergola Extension by Krisna Cheung Architects is a project that aims to reimagine an existing, historic home and transform it into a dwelling fit for its purpose – a generous, domestic hub for a local family. Taking its cues from the existing house's translucent polycarbonate rear garage façade, the architecture team, headed by principal Ray Cheung, worked towards incorporating the polycarbonate sheeting into the roof and ceiling of the living and kitchen area, opening up the composition towards the rear garden, while forming a pergola – the element that lends the residence its name. 

The material and contemporary shapes and nature of the pergola structure clearly highlight the extension as a contemporary addition. Inside, an open plan, created by relocating the existing kitchen and opening up the interior into a flowing living and dining space without corridors or partitions to break up its continuity, feels generous and at one with the planted spaces outside. 

The changes implemented by Cheung were not merely aesthetic. ‘Victorian houses in inner-city Melbourne lack habitability and quality of the environment as they aren’t well considered in terms of heating, cooling, or daylighting,' says Cheung. ‘The design interventions drastically improve natural ventilation and daylighting, thus reducing overall energy consumption alongside providing a healthy environment.'

Sustainable strategies also include an acoustically and thermally well-insulated polycarbonate roof and ceiling, natural ventilation and the reuse of bricks and timber flooring from the old house (the rear façade bricks were used for the garden's landscaping, for instance).

Pergola Extension's creator, Krisna Cheung Architects, is no stranger to working with awkward urban sites and creative inner-city building solutions. Earlier work, such as Colour Shingle House in North Melbourne, treats an existing property with similar flair and creativity. The studio's work keeps a relatively low profile – and often is the result of a modest budget – while achieving maximum impact through spatial generosity and optimising functionality and personality in the final design.

INFORMATION

krisnacheungarchitects.com.au

While Australia’s other major cities – Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide – bring together buildings for the arts in dedicated precincts that spatially declare their commitment to culture, Sydney’s such landmarks are scattered across the city. Among them is the Art Gallery of New South Wales, which celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2021, and sits adjacent to the Domain, a park that edges the central business district and the Royal Botanic Gardens. The area has special significance for the Gadigal, the First Peoples who lived and conducted cultural ceremonies there for tens of thousands of years. 

In the late 19th century, architect Walter Vernon was instructed to design an art gallery in the colonial image that was ‘as strictly classical as possible’. The grand sandstone building, inspired by the Scottish National Gallery, encased an earlier brick ‘art barn’ and was constructed in stages between 1896 and 1909. In the past 50 years, the building has seen several elegant modernist extensions, and in 1994, for the first time, included a dedicated gallery for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art, albeit on the lowest level. The Art Gallery’s newest building project, Sydney Modern, is, in the words of director Michael Brand, ‘a transformation and expansion’, adding a new wing and extensive landscaping, while updating the old structure. 

In 2013, Japanese architecture practice SANAA won the international competition for the new building, its second win in the city after a 1997 design for a new cinematheque for the Museum of Contemporary Art at Circular Quay (the first collaboration between Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa) failed to go ahead. Fortunately, Sydney Modern, with A$244m in state funding supported by a further A$100m in private money, is confirmed to open its doors this December. 

Brand admits that it was a challenge to create an appropriate building for the spectacular site. SANAA’s solution is a series of spaces that link art and views, inside and out, celebrating vertical and horizontal movement through and across the site. ‘It is a building that breathes with the city, the parkland and the beautiful harbour,’ Sejima says. Visitors will enter via a glass box from an art garden between the old and new buildings. The eye is drawn across the space to varying views, from the glistening city skyline to lush trees and the harbour’s converted wharfs. ‘The atmosphere changes as the sun rises and sets, or with the activities of visitors and commuters alike,’ Sejima adds. 

As with many SANAA projects, the floor gently undulates – sloping upwards towards the shop to the side and across to the lifts and a bridge to an outside terrace. On this prominent entry level, in its rightful place, is a gallery for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art in the first of three limestone-clad boxes, with a new installation featuring narrbong-galang bags in found steel by Wiradjuri artist Lorraine Connelly-Northey. This sits next to a large window overlooking the Art Garden with a new commission by Wiradjuri and Kamilaroi artist Jonathan Jones. 

The vista downwards from the entrance level reveals cascading floors below, with two further enclosed galleries and generous public spaces, cafés, sculpture courts and education rooms. Beneath all, unseen and unexpected, is a large Second World War naval oil tank containing a dense sea of 7m-high columns, a space that instantly excites the imagination. The inaugural commission here will be by Argentinian artist Adrián Villar Rojas.

Brand describes a fruitful two-year-long process, where ‘SANAA’s design was influencing our thinking about what we might do when it’s open, but also our thinking was inspiring the way they were designing’. A section of the column-free contemporary exhibition space will house an epic version of Archive of Mind by Korean artist Kimsooja, where audiences can meditatively shape clay while taking in a spectacular view of the gardens. Similar connections between art, spaces and landscape occur throughout, with a series of site-specific commissions. New curatorial positions in film, performance and music further open up possibilities for innovative programming. 

SANAA’s ethereal glass architecture often seems to float in the landscape, so this building, dug into the side of the escarpment, may come as a surprise. Roofs on slender columns hover over limestone-clad galleries while vast textural rammed-earth walls are built into the stepping site, evocative of Sydney sandstone, one of the city’s building blocks. Here, SANAA’s work complements the material palette and feel of the original building.

As Brand says, the new expansion ‘is more than just a treasure house with collections’. It celebrates the value of art on a civic scale and promises to be a delight to explore, by offering new perspectives of the city and its architecture, as well as the artworks themselves. The building has a generous public spirit that calls on the art gallery’s curatorial and management team to create bold, inclusive programming to match. 

INFORMATION

Sydney Modern opens to the public on 3 December 2022

artgallery.nsw.gov.au

sanaa.co.jp

A version of this article headlines the November 2022 Art Special Issue of Wallpaper*, available in print, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today.

Angelucci Architects’ Nido II project is located in the Melbourne suburb of Carlton North. The client was also the builder, and the project marked their family’s return to the part of the city where their grandparents had lived following their emigration from Italy. Incorporating the revision and extension of an original Victorian structure dating back to 1885, Nido II is a series of flexible living spaces with a basement, a courtyard and balconies, and enough space to accommodate a family of six – an urban nest for its owners. 

A Melbourne house that’s an urban nest

‘Nido’ is Italian for ‘nest’, and the project’s careful blend of spaces, different material finishes, and familial togetherness makes it an apt name.

The plan rearranges the long, linear site behind the original façade, and the house has been designed to ensure each level retains a connection to the outside. A central courtyard anchors the main living area, while a large roof deck opens off the first floor, where two children’s bedrooms and a bathroom are located. This top floor has built-in bunk beds and storage, as well as views across the rooftops. 

All rooms have generous ceiling heights, and the linearity of the site is broken up by the use of curved timber slatted walls and large areas of glazing. The kitchen overlooks the courtyard with glazing positioned to create a long view up the stairs to the children’s rooms. A curved kitchen table and banquette provides ample space for family gatherings. The courtyard glazing can be opened up to the elements when the weather allows.

Furthermore, a family bathroom is set behind the curved timber wall in the living room, behind which lies a sunken bath by Agape.

A secondary entrance, with its distinctive arched doorway, gives the ground-floor living space extra flexibility, while the curved Welsh slate tiles that are hung on the exterior walls and roofs are a playful contrast to the combination of new and original brick. Downstairs, a cave-like basement houses a wine store as well as a utility area and indoor playroom, complete with black chalkboard walls. The parents have their own bedroom and en-suite at the front of the house, set apart from the more open-plan family spaces. 

As one would expect from a house built by its owner, there are very high levels of craft and quality of finish at every turn. With terrazzo concrete floors, traditional Venetian plastering, and hand-cut slates, as well as Australian and Japanese handmade tiles in the courtyard and bathrooms, the house creates its own richly textured world.

INFORMATION

angelucciarchitects.com

‘Photography fascinates me in so many ways. But on a personal level, growing up in a rural area, it allowed me to connect with the world; it helped me learn about myself and who I wanted to be. It was a portal to other places and experiences,’ reflects Elias Redstone, artistic director of Photo 2022, the international festival of photography taking place in Melbourne – the centre of Australia’s photography scene – from 29 April to 22 May. 

Photo 2022 transports viewers through past, present and potential futures across five broad narrative arcs (titled ‘Mortality, Self, Society, Nature and History’) exploring the grand theme of ‘Being Human’, a framework that provides, as Redstone describes it, ‘a chance to reassess what shapes us a species: what connects us as a society and makes us unique as individuals'.

The festival’s 2022 edition is immense in both geographic sprawl and curatorial ambition: from billboard-scale outdoor exhibitions by the likes of Cindy Sherman occupying iconic public spaces like the atrium of Fed Square to Mohamed Bourouissa’s staged pictures from the artist’s breakthrough series Périphérique, and his later Shoplifters works (based on photographs Bourouissa found in a Brooklyn supermarket documenting thieves with items they attempted to steal) hung among the portraits of dignitaries at the Victorian bar in the city’s legal district. In more conventional locations such as the Centre for Contemporary Photography are exhibitions by the American artist Paul Mpagi Sepuya and occupying ACMI are huge self-portraits by Gillian Wearing who employed AI and age-processing tools to depict a gallery of possible versions of herself at 70. There are also lush, large-scale images by Massimo Vitali, which explore the timeless theme of leisure shot at beaches across Italy after lockdown.

But it’s not just the era-defining names in the medium that make the festival exciting. It was important to Redstone and the festival partners to emphasise the wealth of emerging and local artists from the region, representing Australia’s ‘incredibly strong and varied’ photography scene’, as Redstone puts it. ‘There are many issues that are pertinent in Australia that also resonate universally. The impact of colonisation for one, and everything that entails. There are incredible First Nations artists with incredibly diverse practices. The landscape is an ongoing obsession, and Australia’s experience on the frontline of the climate crisis has added new urgency to this subject.’

Among 24 artists commissioned to make new work for Photo 2022 is Anu Kumar, whose work will be displayed in the forecourt of the State Library Victoria. The Indian-born, Australian-raised artist created Remnants of Rituals using medium format photography to speak about Melbourne through its Indian Australian diasporic community and its adaptations of traditions to create a new hybrid culture, one that is sometimes fraught with tensions and contradictions but that is constantly evolving.

Also riffing on notions of belonging and home is Madeline Bishop, an emerging Australian photographer who asked people she knew to introduce her to people she’d never met who were willing to be photographed by her in their homes. The resulting body of black and white works, So I sew stitches, are ruminations on intimacy, connection and community that land somewhere between documentary portraiture and performance. 

‘I love working with photography because everyone can read a photographic image,’ Redstone reflects on the way photography continues to permeate and pervade every aspect of our everyday lives. ‘It is incredibly accessible, and at the same time you can use it to bring people into contact with a multitude of ideas or lived experiences they might not otherwise encounter.’ 

Photo 2022 searches for the fundamental, lived experiences that make us human – but it also provides an opportunity to transcend the confines of our human existence; to imagine, dream, and explore a world that exists beyond our eyes, one that is at times bleaker, but often dazzlingly brighter; a shared space of sensory perception that has the potential to unite us beyond what we understand of our condition and place on earth.

INFORMATION

Photo 2022 will take place across various locations in Melbourne from 29 April to 22 May 2022. photo.org.au

The perfect residence is the sum of many parts – architecture, furniture, product, landscape, art, and more, play an important role in making a house a thoroughly modern and warm home. Curatorial House, one of Melbourne's latest contemporary, high-end residential offerings, is such a scheme, flying the flag for the value these layers of culture bring to a project and in particular what art can bring to a space. Featuring bespoke art curation by local gallery Otomys, and design by architecture studio Taylor Pressly Architects, the brief was the result of a client's passion and adventurous spirit, as much as its creative team's flair. 

'Our aim is to ease the boundaries between art and interiors, and working not only with the talented cohort of artists that we represent, but also an extended reach of additional artists across the globe, we are able to offer our clients a broad and complete art service from procurement through to installation,' says Megan Dicks, who co- directs Otomys with Hannah Abbott.

The house's clean lines, sharp geometries and calming colour tones compose a serene environment, nestled in a leafy part of Melbourne's Toorak neighbourhood. The space is further elevated by a body of art, which dots the space throughout, creating expressive accents, adding colour and on occasion, a touch of playfulness, to the sophisticated interiors of this home. Meanwhile the styling was crafted by Tyler Aspen Edmonds.

The gallerists tackled the project as the complete curation of a full collection for the owners. As a result the house now contains 60 artworks from 27 artists and gallerists across 15 cities. The pieces were specially chosen to work with the architecture without clashing, but still, announcing their presence clearly - no bland works here to blend in the background, the team explains. 'My conversations with Tyler about his curation of interiors often informed our artistic decisions  - together, we curated diverse genres, scales and mediums to create a language of strength and confidence. There was a place for the over-scaled contemporary work of Melbourne-based Mark Roper down to small, classic oil paintings by South African artist Danielle Mooney, each holding presence in the home,' says Dicks.

The architectural bones of the building - such as its swathes of glazing, high ceilings and a central triple-height void - are highlighted by the placement of select pieces at strategic locations. The immaculate construction detailing, and material and colour palettes compose a complete domestic experience where art is in sync with life. 

INFORMATION

taylorpressly.com.au

otomys.com

tyleraspenedmonds.com

Inspired by the open-air, concrete architecture of South America, Canopy House sits proud and airy on high ground in a leafy site of Melbourne's Yarra neighbourhood. The architects, Powell & Glenn, founded by Ed Glenn and Allan Powell (and currently led by the former following the latter's retirement), have over the years honed their expertise in creating sophisticated, subtly impactful residences, and this concrete Melbourne home is no exception. Drawing on their client's interest in South American architecture and mindfulness, they created a house that is a carefully choreographed composition of light and space - but which, at the same time, serves the needs of a family lifestyle. 

The site itself was another key point to consider in the design development, as Glenn explains: 'The site’s cascading topography provided an opportunity to experience the surroundings at multiple levels. At ground level, the thud of the earth is evident, with the progression through the central and upper floors leaving the user floating amongst the tree canopies.'

Spread across two levels, the home opens up through high ceilings, large windows and swathes of glass towards the green surroundings at every turn. A vertical circulation core connects everything and 'ties' various spaces together visually too, thanks to a sculptural concrete staircase. 

Clean, horizontal lines, orthogonal columns and a handful of carefully placed curves make up a composition that feels at the same time sharp, timeless and dynamic, but also serene and contemporary. The roof's concrete canopy extends out and connects seamlessly the interior with the lush, verdant exterior and the home's outdoors areas, such as its paved terraces, pergola and swimming pool. A sprawling garden designed by Robert Boyle Landscapes wraps around the property.

'There is an incremental breaking down of elements that helps embed the house with the surroundings, while allowing the family to observe the changing conditions of the natural world,' says Glenn of this concrete Melbourne home, engulfed in greenery. 

INFORMATION

powellandglenn.com.au

Melbourne Design Week is back. While last year the programme explored the theme ‘Design the World You Want’ and asked designers to consider how they could collaborate to create a healthier future, the Melbourne Design Week 2022 programme of exhibitions, installations, talks and workshops invites participants to celebrate the diverse ways design can work towards this better future.

This year there is also a new focal point for Melbourne’s design community: the inaugural Melbourne Design Fair.

Melbourne Design Week 2022: Wallpaper’s highlights

Melbourne Design Fair

Led by National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) and Melbourne Art Foundation (the organisation behind Melbourne Art Fair), Melbourne Design Fair makes its debut with a showcase of collectible contemporary design from over 100 designers and makers.

On one side, ‘Present’ features 13 of Australia’s leading commercial galleries, design agencies and studios, including Broached Commissions, Christopher Boots, Sullivan+Strumpf and relative newcomers to the design scene Gallery Sally Dan-Cuthbert, and C Gallery. Agency Project’s display of works by First Nations makers Regina Pilawuk Wilson, James Tylor and Pedro Wonaeamirri is a standout.

The gallery presentations are complemented by ‘Select’, a showcase of Australian designers curated by Simone LeAmon, NGV’s Hugh Williamson curator of contemporary design and architecture. Look out for artist Troy Emery’s hot pink, wallaby-themed collaboration with designer Daniel Poole.

Until 20 March
28 Duke Street, Abbotsford

Art Book Fair at NGV International

The Art Book Fair returns with artists and publishers including Perimeter, M.33 and architecture and design imprint Uro Publications. This year, NGV Design Store is collaborating with New York institution Printed Matter, Inc to bring a range of exclusive international merchandise and artist books. The fair is also complemented by a full events programme. The hot insider tip is ‘Performing Poetics’, a series of curated sessions exploring language, poetry and performance from Rosa Press, Elena Gomez, Bella Li, No More Poetry, and Incendium Radical Library Press.

18 – 21 March 2022
NGV International

‘Futures Collective’

Installed in the historic Villa Alba and its surrounding gardens, ‘Futures Collective’ is Sydney interiors store Spence & Lyda’s pick of local and international designers championing facets of sustainable design. Álvaro Catalán de Ocón’s ‘Plastic Rivers’ rugs, made from salvaged PET bottles from the world’s most polluted rivers, are on display next to works by acclaimed local designers including Jon Goulder, Fiona Lynch Office, and Authentic Design Alliance.

Until 26 March 2022
Villa Alba Museum, 44 Walmer St, Kew

‘Primitive Artefact’

Architecture practice BayleyWard is opening its studio to the public with a series of workshops allowing visitors to design and create their own rammed earth artefacts that will be exhibited together at the end of the week. The project uses materials gathered locally, and each location is charted on a map. ‘By mapping the source of the materials, we will demonstrate the benefits of rammed earth as a sustainable construction method, raise awareness of opportunities available within a local precinct, and demonstrate the social and environmental impact associated with procurement of materials,’ states the practice.

Until 27 March 2022
BayleyWard
21-23 Chessell St, Southbank

‘Designing the Circular Economy’

This one-day symposium explores how designers, policy makers, and consumers can accelerate the transition to a circular economy. A ‘pick and mix’ programme allows audiences to select which of the three sessions they attend. Two moderated panel discussions will take a deep dive into the implications of circularity for fashion and product design, and construction and demolition respectively. The day culminates with an international presentation by Singapore-based strategist and urbanist Sarah Ichioka sharing the ideas behind her new book, Flourish: Design Paradigms for Our Planetary Emergency, co-authored with Michael Pawlyn.

22 March 2022
NGV International

INFORMATION

Melbourne Design Week runs until 27 March 2022
designweek.melbourne

Fawkner House is a new-build Melbourne apartment complex in the city’s Domain Precinct, close to the Royal Botanic Gardens in South Yarra. Built by local property developer Beulah International, which has worked with UNStudio, Fender Katsalidis, and Woods Bagot, amongst others, the new apartments are the work of Melbourne studio Rob Mills Architecture & Interiors (RMA). From the street, Fawkner House is an eclectic collage of horizontal lines and soaring curves. One key source of inspiration is unusual for downtown Melbourne. Creative director Rob Mills says that the building makes explicit reference to Le Corbusier’s famous chapel in Ronchamp, Notre Dame du Haut, completed in 1954.

Melbourne apartments channel curves of Notre Dame du Haut

One of the significant buildings of the 20th century, the Ronchamp chapel marked the point at which modernism divested itself of strict geometric rigour, introducing more expressive and organic elements.

The front façade of Fawkner House certainly has Le Corbusian leanings, with elements that evoke the Swiss architect’s work in Chandigarh, as well as the curves of Notre Dame du Haut.

‘There are many reasons we are fond of curves in our work, but the most prevalent is the way energy and light naturally flow when intersections are rounded and softened,’ says Mills. ‘It leads to fewer shadows, and light is obviously something else we’re known for in our designs.’

The result is a building that sets out to be deliberately different, emphasising different aspects of light, space, and materiality from the moment one sets eyes on it. 

As well as the intersecting planes that make up the front elevation, the design allows for extensive space for planting, creating a tiered garden effect that includes the installation of semi-mature trees. Landscape architect Paul Bangay’s plan transforms the new building into an extension of the nearby Fawkner Park, while the coherent architectural composition gives the impression of a single, four-storey dwelling, instead of a group of individual apartments.

The entrance hall is inlaid with a semi-circle of Calacatta Viola marble, with its characteristic light stone and dark veins. A triple-height space rises up above the visitor, culminating in a curved rooflight and polished, reflective walls. Apartments feature 3m ceilings, curved walls, and rich materials. Marble and dark, hand-stained timber are used to convey solidity, with expansive windows juxtaposed with circular rooflights. 

Each apartment is reached through a door custom-made by the Australian supplier Pittella, a firm set up in the 1950s to bring contemporary Italian craftsmanship to the burgeoning Australian domestic scene.

Kitchen fixtures and appliances are from Gaggenau, and particular attention has been paid to the acoustics and air quality within each apartment, helped in part by the planting and the curved walls. 

Beulah and RMA have made the most of a rare opportunity. Although there was permission for many more homes on the site, the developer decided to build just nine spacious units instead, with each apartment benefitting from the topography.

‘It’s the height of the land, and with that comes light, space, better quality of air, opportunity for phenomenal views,’ says Mills. ‘It’s all those wonderful ingredients that make something special.’ 

INFORMATION

BeulahInternational.com

RobMillsArchitects.com

Melbourne’s vibrant architecture scene has been bolstered by the opening of two joyful, temporary architecture projects this week. Get ready to welcome the 2021 MPavilion and the Architecture Commission by the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). Here, colour and playfulness rule.

Melbourne’s two new temporary architecture pavilions

MPavilion

The annual MPavilion commission by the Naomi Milgrom Foundation is back after last year’s hiatus in Queen Victoria Gardens, adjacent to Melbourne Arts Precinct. The design by Venice-based MAP studio is composed of a 6m-tall grid that floats on prefabricated concrete supports and holds a set of mirrored aluminium panels to reflect light, as well as provide glimpses of other visitors and the pavilion’s bright yellow floor. 

Named The Lightcatcher, the pavilion functions as a stage around which people will gather to attend free performances, talks, workshops and children’s activities programmed over the summer months. When the pavilion closes in April 2022 it will be gifted to the state and relocated to a permanent home somewhere in Victoria, joining previous MPavilions that occupy a variety of sites from Docklands to Melbourne Zoo.

NGV Architecture Commission

Across the road from MPavilion, NGV has revealed its annual Architecture Commission in its sculpture garden. Entitled Pond[er], the design by architecture firm Taylor Knights in collaboration with artist James Carey is centred on a bright pink pond – wrapping around Henry Moore’s 1958 sculpture Draped Seated Woman – and beds of Australian wildflowers, designed with Ben Scott Garden Design to bloom at different times as the seasons change.

The striking pink hue is a reference to Victoria’s inland salt lakes. While visitors to the architectural garden are encouraged to wade through the pond, which holds about 45,000 litres of water, and take pleasure in this temporary oasis, the designers’ intention is for people to also consider the scarcity and political implications of water. According to the design team, ‘the way in which we have mismanaged and misused our land and water systems throughout Australia has seen a dramatic increase in extreme weather events, unprecedented drought, rising temperatures and ocean levels, and more recently, catastrophic bushfires'.

After the installation is removed, in October 2022, the materials used in its construction are to be distributed and reused by various Landcare, Indigenous, and community groups.

INFORMATION

mpavilion.org

ngv.vic.gov.au

MPavilion, Melbourne’s annual architecture and design event and temporary pavilion, has returned for its eighth season after a pandemic-disrupted year. This year’s iteration, with a structure designed by MAP Studio, the Italian architecture practice of Francesco Magnani and Traudy Pelzel, is kicking off on 2 December and running until 24 April 2022 – the longest MPavilion programme yet.

There will be 250 free events at this year’s pavilion, called ‘The LightCatcher’, in Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Gardens, which will be preceded by an online programme from 23 November. A series of talks, workshops, community projects and activities will be held throughout, with each month considering a different theme. In November, Island Life will be examined; in December, That Which Makes Things Visible; in January, Vacation, Location, Staycation; and in February, Rituals: Marking Life. The final two months will consider the bigger picture, with March looking at Design as a Human Right, and April, The Reality of this Time.

‘Following two years of uncertainty, MPavilion 2021 provides an optimistic beacon of post-pandemic recovery for the creative life of our city,’ says Naomi Milgrom AC, founder of the Naomi Milgrom Foundation. ‘MAP studio’s MPavilion will bring the community together and renew connections in a safe environment for our first season back in the Queen Victoria Gardens. Driven by our mission to champion architecture and design, our partnership with MAP and the diversity of this year’s programme promises to reinvigorate the dialogue between Melbourne and the rest of the world.’

Over 500 guests from Australia and around the world will participate in talks that include discussions from Grand Designs Australia host and architect Peter Maddison, design collective Space Saloon, and architects including Sean Godsell Architects, MOS, MVRDV, Sauerbruch Hutton, Bolles+Wilson, and Snøhetta. The talks will take place alongside MProjects, unique creations and residencies.

The MPavilion programme of events will encompass everything from tracing the journey of Skywhalepapa, the giant hot-air-balloon sculpture by Patricia Piccinini as it sets off over Melbourne, to the three-day forum on Indigenous architecture, BLAKitecture: The Manifesto.

INFORMATION

mpavilion.org

The beautiful but historical frontage of a period building in Melbourne does not reveal the feast of geometries, concrete brutalist architecture and monochromatic minimalism that unfolds beyond it. This is Colonnade House, the dramatic reimagining of an existing family home, courtesy of local architecture and design studio Splinter Society.

‘Colonnade House emerged from a brief for a large family home that respected, but was distinctly different from, their existing federation home,’ say the architects (federation referring to the style of Australian homes built in the decades either side of 1900). An extension and the complete redesign of the existing space behind the historical front façade have done just that, marking a distinct departure from any period styles and declaring a clean, minimalist presence through a sharp geometric composition, which fully reveals itself on the rear elevation.  

Meanwhile, a concrete colonnade, which delineates the dining area inside and creates vertical views out towards the garden, lends the house its name. This distinctive feature runs through the side of the extension, adding sculptural architecture and textured surfaces among the owners' carefully placed art collection.

Inside, the architects created a sophisticated colour and material palette comprising shades of white and grey, and textures of concrete, poured in situ. The reimagining of the interior goes significantly beyond aesthetic adjustments. Dark, closed and disconnected rooms were opened up, views through areas and towards the outdoors were created or enhanced, and new and old were woven together artfully into a contemporary whole. 

The materials also help navigate the relationship between the old and new parts of the house, the architects explain: ‘In creating a dialogue with the elegant heritage home, the addition is a modern adaptation of its distinct original characteristics. Where the old is adorned with decorative details, the new contains a restrained, modern decorative grain of refined steel, timber, render and tile detailing.' 

Practical, but equally important updates to the historical structure include new insulation, double glazing throughout and strategically placed openings that encourage natural ventilation. An energy approach based on passive principles is bolstered through the use of solar hot water, water tanks and photovoltaic panels.

INFORMATION

splintersociety.com

With the pandemic disrupting last year's MPavilion annual plans, more than a year has passed without a new, beloved community-focused architectural structure and cultural laboratory in Melbroune's Queen Victoria Gardens. But fear not; following up on a different, but equally engaging 2020 programme of events, the commissioner, The Naomi Milgrom Foundation, has just announced the next architecture studio to create a pavilion in the park: Venice-based Francesco Magnani and Traudy Pelzel of Italian architecture practice MAP Studio. 

‘We were surprised and pleased when they invited us to come to Australia to discuss the project,' recalls Pelzel, one of the two co-founders of the Venice based practice. ‘They had seen our Asplund pavilion as part of the Vatican's display at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. We went, had several meetings and saw the previous pavilions and the site, and in the end they confirmed to us the commission. The overall mood and passion of the MPavilion's team is very exciting. It is a project that is very important for the community in Melbourne, an urban sign of the consolidated role of civic place of meeting and inspiration that sets it apart.'

The project has been a while in the making, as the MPavilion design was originally scheduled for construction in 2020. The commission was the culmination of an uplifting couple of years for the young studio (which was founded in 2010); their Vatican Pavilion in Venice indeed received wide critical acclaim and was followed by the prestigious Italian Architect Award in 2018. 

The studio, even though it has built few works outside its home country of Italy, is prolific, focusing on a sensitive approach to historical architecture, restoration and urbanism, while maintaining a sharp, contemporary approach and aesthetic. Its portfolio is varied, including from the refurbishment of 19th century greenhouses in Querini Park, Vincenza, to the outfitting of the National Museum of Musical Instruments in Rome, a new office building in Bologna, and the restoration of Carlo Scarpa’s Balboni House in Venice. 

This sensibility of urban renewal, gentle transformation and sensitive, yet fresh and confident interventions will no doubt bring an exciting twist to the much loved Australian pavilion. Current plans outline that the 2021 MPavilion will open to the public on Thursday 11 November, 2021, while its design will be revealed in advance of that, during July.

INFORMATION

map-studio.it

mpavilion.org

Craft, history and nature are at the core of this intruiging industrial conversion in the inner city suburb of Fitzroy in Melbourne. Designed by Architects EAT, headed by Eid Goh and Albert Mo, the home comprises a masterfully converted old warehouse and adjacent workers’ cottage that have been transformed into a modern, domestic space, all behind a green-covered, tall brick wall.

Fittingly named Stockroom, the house keeps its original industrial shell, reading from the outside as a warehouse and small cottage building with a courtyard and small patios engulfed in greenery. The interior, however, was completely redesigned. ‘[It] is anecdotally influenced by Venetian and Brazilian modernism, perhaps due to travel to these locations,’ say the architects. 

Indeed, the main circulation spine of the complex, was treated by the team as a Venetian via, offering routes through spaces and views across the interior and out towards the courtyards, rich with vegetation and climbing planting. This feeling of history and patina is enhanced by the maintaining of original exteriors and the boundary brick wall, which was left exposed. 

The main warehouse building hosts the open-plan living space on the ground level, with the childrens’ sleeping area upstairs. Meanwhile, the parents’ quarters sit in the cottage section, within a separate master suite. 

Old meets new everywhere, but the overall feeling is that this is a home that has always been there. Tactile materials, natural colours and surfaces come together in a whole that invites the touch and feels comfortable and welcoming. A concrete core at the centre of the warehouse houses the staircase that leads up to the timber-balustraded upper level. The same core also cleverly extends to form and support other functions around it, including the utility spaces, such as the laundry, bathrooms and storage. 

Existing materials and the nature around the site played a key role in the overall palette of this industrial conversion, explain the team: ‘Elaborately detailed balustrades are testimony of the skill of the carpenter and wood turner, while materially referencing the 150-year-old oregon timber trusses overhead, and paying homage to the loved lemon scented gum tree in the back garden.'

INFORMATION
eatas.com.au