The tallest residential tower in Victoria, Australia, is set to rise at 150 Queen Street, Melbourne. At 71 storeys tall, the undulating glass façade of the Elenberg Fraser designed “Tower Melbourne” is being touted as a new direction for the city’s urban scene with high-density residential offered on quite a condensed footprint.

“We have an ideal situation of a micro floor plate in a super high-rise context, and if you take this idea of a very thin tower and put a twist into it, you create a continuously evolving form. The result is a luxurious living sculpture that reacts to the sun and the sky”, explains architect Callum Fraser.

Arranged vertically into four residential sections, the tower will draw heavily on the Melbourne landscape, culturally and physically, to imbue the interiors with a definitive sense of place and locality. Architectural features, practical layouts and a measured use of materials will reflect on the historical narrative of the city’s growth.

Specifically, Elenberg Fraser and developer CEL have referenced Baron von Ferdinand Mueller’s presentation of the Domain and taken cure from the parkland’s orientation to the Yarra River. Making mention of Redmond Barry’s amalgamation of the library and museum, to parliament, the brewery and the universities beyond.

The inclusion of commercial and retail tenancies at street level will directly engage the building with its neighbours. Internally, the appointment of luxury facilities across health club and pool will foster a sense of community with the proposal of a mid-tower resident’s garden, lounge and dining amenities further blurring the lines between the notion of ‘public vs private’ to enhance the inherent social advantages of the development.

Having worked extensively with wind engineers Vipac in the design and development stage, the arresting irregularity of the façade has been achieved with an avoidance of wind downwash, which in less considered designs results in wind tunnelling at street level.

The development though is not without controversy, with The City of Melbourne having formally registering opposition to the tower on the grounds that the scale of the project is inconsiderate to its surroundings. Matters of planning approval at this scale currently sit under the jurisdiction of the State Government, not local.

Elenberg Fraser

elenbergfraser.com

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