2023 Houses Awards: Apartment or Unit

Jury comment

The task of reimagining an apartment can be a challenging one. Adjustments are constrained by the existing building structure, and, in a predominantly interior setting, it can be hard to find context to refer and respond to. These limitations are overcome with confidence and flair in this accomplished apartment fitout, which is resolute in its response to place.

The brief was to rework a 1970s apartment in central Melbourne, and the architects have relished the opportunity to pay tribute to the home’s former glory in a building that was once dubbed the Tower of Power. A crown of extruded aluminium panels is a mercurial canvas that registers changing light and city views. Inspired by the reflective ceiling of McIntyre and Partners’ Parliament Station (1982) – the metro station beneath the apartment building – it explores how the fabric of the city can be reinterpreted at a domestic scale.

Newly expanded social spaces are generously scaled and intentionally loose, enabling reconfiguration. A restrictive material palette of concrete, Tasmanian blackwood, brass and silver aluminium is punctuated with intense colour, achieving a design that is both joyful and unexpected.

This accomplished project possesses irrefutable joie de vivre and demonstrates how apartment design can simultaneously offer escape from, and immersion in, urban life.

For more coverage, read the project review by Stuart Harrison.

Spring Street is built on the land of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people.

Project credits

Project team: Rodney Eggleston, Julian Canterbury, Anne-Laure Cavigneaux, Belinda Hadjini, Charlie Lane, Jack Seedsman Builder: Blu Line Projects Engineer: Mark Postil