Six stories of additional built form were added to the top of the 1948 Melbourne Telephone Exchange and Post Office as a part of its adaptive reuse into inner city apartments.
Designed to counterpoint the host’s interlocking 1940s cubic geometry, the addition is expressed in modern vernacular accentuated by a materials palette predominated by Corten steel and galvanised iron. A dramatic and richly detailed skyline sculpture, its form celebrates the here and now, while re-validating the integrity of the site’s architectural past.
The design is also successful in referencing and reinterpreting ornamental elements of the existing building. Stylised Doric columns at street level echo above at the interface of old and new, and contemporary art installations—permanent and transient—neighbour the façade’s original bas-relief adornment. Appropriate retail offerings at ground and basement levels inject further richness and vitality.
Six stories of additional built form were added to the top of the 1948 Melbourne Telephone Exchange and Post Office as a part of its adaptive reuse into inner city apartments.
Designed to counterpoint the host’s interlocking 1940s cubic geometry, the addition is expressed in modern vernacular accentuated by a materials palette predominated by Corten steel and galvanised iron. A dramatic and richly detailed skyline sculpture, its form celebrates the here and now, while re-validating the integrity of the site’s architectural past.
The design is also successful in referencing and reinterpreting ornamental elements of the existing building. Stylised Doric columns at street level echo above at the interface of old and new, and contemporary art installations—permanent and transient—neighbour the façade’s original bas-relief adornment. Appropriate retail offerings at ground and basement levels inject further richness and vitality.
Six stories of additional built form were added to the top of the 1948 Melbourne Telephone Exchange and Post Office as a part of its adaptive reuse into inner city apartments.
Designed to counterpoint the host’s interlocking 1940s cubic geometry, the addition is expressed in modern vernacular accentuated by a materials palette predominated by Corten steel and galvanised iron. A dramatic and richly detailed skyline sculpture, its form celebrates the here and now, while re-validating the integrity of the site’s architectural past.
The design is also successful in referencing and reinterpreting ornamental elements of the existing building. Stylised Doric columns at street level echo above at the interface of old and new, and contemporary art installations—permanent and transient—neighbour the façade’s original bas-relief adornment. Appropriate retail offerings at ground and basement levels inject further richness and vitality.
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