Location: Footscray, Australia.

Architect: Kavellaris Urban Design.

The subject site is advantageously positioned near a significant transportation and infrastructure network, 4 km outside of the heart of Melbourne. It is at the fringe of a sizable abandoned industrial park. At Vic Sq, a new hybridised urban renewal project, the opposing suburban and urban scales and forms collide for the first time in Footrscay’s history. Vic Square is the first phase of a 6-tower Master Plan, and its low-rise surroundings gave us the chance to create a master plan that would be visually striking from the site’s easterly and westerly approaches, informing the characteristics of the towers.

The Towers’ fluid curvilinear shapes reflect the motion of the nearby bay and river environment. As one moves through the precinct, floor plates rhythmically shift around the two buildings, giving the observer a sense of mobility and providing a fresh perspective on the towers. The structure is encircled by striking black and white metal and glass ribbons that are expressed both inside in plan and outwardly in form. The white ribbons that decorate the structure’s edge are made of off-site prefabricated metal panels. Also, the black aluminium window frames that give the structures their rhythm are complimented by the white linear panelled walls, which create the panoramic windows that wrap around the building’s perimeter.