PROJECTS

150 Clarendon Street

DETAILS

Arch / Design:		Bates Smart (web)
Type:		Residential
Year:		2010
Location:		Melbourne

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PROJECTS BY ARCHITECT BATES SMART

Retaining the structure of the former Mercy Hospital, the building is located in a predominantly low-rise neighbourhood. The spacious and elegant apartments have magnificent views of the city, across the gardens to Port Phillip Bay, and to the Dandenong Ranges in the east.

In this project, Bates Smart sought to address the building's relationship to its parkside site in tranquil and leafy East Melbourne. By adopting a calming sympathetic relationship to its historical setting. Closer examination reveals forms and materials that are crisply detailed using a contemporary palette to produce a timeless, quiet elegance.

The building is grounded by a podium that activates the street and houses vibrant, high quality amenities including a restaurant, cafe, wine shop shop and boutique grocery store, as well as a phamacy and medical suites. At the third floor level, the building steps back to create a skirted waistline that delineates the podium from the tower.

The tower's armature of double-height precast framing imparts a calm rhythm and grand scale, and shelters smaller scale elements within. The framing lines are repeated in the podium, with its large double height cut-out openings. On the top two levels, the glazing line steps back again, allowing the strong crown of the projecting canopy roofline to float free, giving the impression that the delicate glassy pavilions are suspended in the sky.