The project is integrally organized by one big detail: a "Green spine" of vertically networked platforms, terraces and verandas.
UNStudio, founded in 1988 by Ben van Berkel and Caroline Bos, is an international network specialising in architecture, interior architecture, product design, urban development and infrastructural projects.
With six full-service international offices in Amsterdam, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Frankfurt, Dubai and Melbourne and over 200 employees from 27 countries, our streamlined structure enables us to spend less time organising and more time designing and collaborating with our clients.
This multifaceted spine is created by the splitting open of the potential single mass at its core, thereby forming two separate high-rise structures and causing them to reveal the almost geological strata of their core layers as they rise above a light-filled canyon.
The orientation of the Green Spine enables an extension of the public realm on the podium, the continuation of green onto the towers and facilitates orientation to the CBD and the Botanical Garden at the top of the towers. In addition to being fully integrated within the existing Melbourne network of cultural, entertainment, leisure and commercial venues on offer, with its variety of programmes and connectivities, the design further proposes a mixed-use building that is a city in itself. A host of programmes, including recreation, retail, offices, residential, hotel and exhibition spaces are integrated into the vertically stepped public infrastructure – an infrastructure that is formed by indoor-outdoor spatial frames that embed nature, public space and culture. On a local level, the aim of the design is to provide porousness at street level, whilst simultaneously connecting the upper floors with the streetscape by expanding the public realm.
The ‘Big Detail’ in UNStudio’s design proposal for Southbank by Beulah is the Green Spine, an architectural element that incorporates a multitude of functions in one fluid gesture. The Green Spine is designed to generate public flows and movement and offer multiple benefits throughout the design. It extends the Southbank Boulevard upwards and acts as the key organizational element of the building with respect to program, culture, landscape, and sustainability. In addition to housing a variety of amenities, all programs are linked to the Green Spine.
At ground level, this spine directly engages with Southbank Boulevard by bringing people up and into the building, thereby expanding the public realm up and into the building. From the public park at the top of the podium, the Spine continues to entwine itself around the two towers, where it culminates at the top of the residential tower in ‘Future Gardens’.
POJECT INFORMATION
LOCATION
Southbank, Melbourne, Australia
YEAR
2018
STATUS
Under construction
PROGRAM
Residential, Retail & Food Precinct, Hotel, Cultural Integration, Entertainment, BMW Experience Center, Public Green Space, Discovery Spaces, Offices, Childcare facilities
ARCHITECT
CLIENT
Beulah International (Real Estate Developer)
RENDERS
UN Studio
TEXT
UN Studio
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