Shortlisted designs unveiled at Melbourne’s Southbank symposium
MELBOURNE: Six short-listed teams comprising the world’s leading architectural firms presented their designs at the public ‘Future Cities’ symposium last Friday in the city’s Southbank.
The symposium saw over 1,500 attendees and the Southbank by Beulah architecture competition offered the first glimpse into the proposed designs for the site.
It will transform Southbank into a A$2bil lifestyle precinct potentially comprising residential, world-class retail and department stores, a dedicated gourmet food and market precinct, a five-star hotel, designated commercial spaces, and culture and public spaces.
In addition, there is hope to attract global tech names such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Apple and Samsung to create an experiential technology hub.
The international firms that presented were MAD Architects, MVRDV, OMA, UNStudio, Bjarke Ingels Group and Coop Himmelb (l) au alongside Australian firms, Fender Katsalidis Architects, Architectus, Elenberg Fraser, Woods Bagot, Cox Architecture and Conrad Gargett.
Each of the six teams were give 20 minutes to present their concept to the audience as well as their vision and thoughts on ‘Future Cities’, with the winning design to change Melbourne’s skyline forever.
The shortlisted schemes included twisting towers, interlocking blocks, and stacked neighbourhoods, all focusing to occupy the 6,000-sq m BMW Southbank site.
The overarching theme of the symposium was ‘Future Cities.’ As the population grows and lifestyles change and evolve, so too does the need for considered development that is designed for current and future generations.
One focus of the symposium was discussing how architects, designers and engineers play an ever-important role in being able to shape communities and optimise lifestyles.
As part of the project and competition highlight, Southbank waterfront played host to a pop-up sculptural pavilion from July 25 to August 1.
Located in front of the red steps, the Beulah Pavilion was designed to be an ephemeral structure that held specific events as part of the architectural competition and the Future Cities symposium.
Beulah International executive director, Adelene Teh is responsible for commissioning the design.
Samson Tiew from ODO (One Design Office) who is the architect behind the design, said the pavilion is designed to represent the city being in a state of constant motion and change.
“The pavilion utilises concentric frames to capture how iterative progress can be seen as a sculptural outcome where visual interest is formed through the static capture of motion,” he said.
Whirled around a common axis, the frames are lit by programmed lights to further emphasise movement that came to life at night.