Layered Lantern

A textured surface reflects the changing sunline and breaks the mass of the East and West facades.

405 Bourke Street

405 Bourke Street is a luminous addition to an iconic Melbourne street. Known as ‘the lantern’ its softly glowing façade visually activates the urban fabric by creating an inviting landmark that adds character and a sense of simple elegance to a busy and bustling part of the city.

Utilising a single technique of continuous ‘laminations’, 405 Bourke Street resolves numerous site constraints and covenants, as well as creating visual connection between the large East and West elevations and podium street wall. The rhythm of CBD’s grid emerges in de-constructed form via multiple reflections and repetitions that refract and absorb light across the facade’s laminated edges – playing off the energy of the city.

405 Bourke exists in horizontal alignment to its adjoining, historic neighbours, and is an excitingly modern addition to the city skyline. The development connects, at an urban level, to a network of Melbourne lanes via new through site links that provide access in and across the site.

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Project details

The design utilises space defining techniques similar to the perpetual reflection created by two opposing mirrors and that seen in a series of stacked glass laminations. With both design moves, one monolithic object is broken down on its edges by the visual effect of perpetual reflectivity.

The dramatically simple facade system of repetitive laminations is designed to catch the sun differently throughout the day. An ever changing facade expression from morning to evening through the subtle shift in plane across the East and West, absorbing and reflecting the energy of the city.

Location
Melbourne, Australia
Client
Brookfield
Size
105,000 sqm
Completion
2021
Awards
  • 2022 Sir Osborn McCutcheon Award for Commercial Architecture – AIA Awards, Victorian Chapter
  • 2022 World Architecture News (WAN) – Commercial, Runner up
  • 2023 Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) – Best Tall Building, Award of Excellence Winner
  • 2023 Property Council of Australia (PCA) – Best workplace, Shortlist
  • 2023 PCA – Project development innovation, Shortlist
  • 2023 PCA – Best office development, Shortlist
  • 2023 PCA – Project innovation, Shortlist

Talk to Sarah Ball about Workplace Architecture

Rear Elevation

Bourke St Elevation

Building Section

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