Melbourne Design Studios (MDS) are terrifically adaptable. Given a brief for contemporary new residences for a development, the team also took on the dilapidated heritage home on the allotment, transforming it into ‘Waltham Jewel’, one of Richmond’s finest homes.
The Klang & Co. conceptual design pivots around a desire to combine the tactility of the experience of dining with the contextual quality of Malaysia Klang Depot, which is the provenance of the restaurant culture. The design draws inspiration from Heston’s dish ‘Sound of the sea’, the dish composes the sound of sea wave audible through magnifying the echoes within the sea shell and the olfactory experience of smelling the sea water, Heston aims to heighten the senses associated with dining in order to enhance the innate quality of the ingredients. Our design deploys elements which invoke sensual responses and contextual association, the crane structure overhead adds visual potency to the dining environment, it reflects the industrial oil processing which is essential to Klang’s economic boom, the artificial identity of the crane is counterpoised by the suspended tables, translucent screen wall which signify sea bubble and the sea; and level of bright glimpse effect throughout the spatial arrangement, embodied the illumination atmosphere of the Klang depot’s night life . Deliberately designed elements permeate the restaurant to embellish the overall setting just as sea lives dwell in the sea. The restaurant layout celebrates the coastal industrial process of on and offloading cargo containers, a parallel can be drawn with the on and offloading of pre-packaged food, just like modern craft no longer limits itself to handmade goods and is continuously expanding its possibilities through machine processing, the craftsmanship of takeaway food can inherit authenticity and quality without compromising the effectiveness of its distribution.
The Arrow Studio was conceived as an out of focus, reflective vortex in the Australian landscape.
Our client Mr. White retired to the countryside near Hanging Rock in Victoria a few years before the project started. His brief was to build a small gallery in the back yard facing the bush, where he could hang paintings and photos and also use as a studio. For security reasons, as well as to maximize hanging space, we were asked to have minimal windows, and for those windows to be framed in a way that intruders could not break in.
The Blairgowrie Beach House on the Mornington Peninsula retained and altered the rear proportion of the existing building and expanded the dwelling forward on a steeply sloped site to accommodate additional living and sleeping areas. Manipulations of the building form were employed to address the access disconnect and setup a conceptual framework where we continued our practices interest in spatial division patterns. The new first floor incorporates a large cantilevered metal clad form which created a covered area for car parking, and was counteracted with concrete rendered vertical walls which pushed out to level out the land. Continuing formal manipulations, the metal clad form had volumes carved out to incorporate a balcony space, and a feature vertical window to illuminate at night and interact with the public realm when the house is being occupied.
Since its opening in 1984, Bendigo Library has proved both popular and successful, welcoming almost 500,000 users through its doors each year and providing membership services to 40,000 people.
Adjacent to the stately Bendigo Town Hall, and positioned at the gateway to the Hargreaves Mall shopping precinct, the building is ideally placed to embody the principles of access and communication, which are so important to a confident, caring community.
Located in the rural setting of Nhill, Victoria, Hindmarsh Shire Council Corporate Offices is a technologically advanced Corporate Civic and Administration Centre with Environmentally Sustainable Design (ESD) principles at the core of the building’s design intent.
Completed in 2014 the precinct re-uses the existing 1960’s building and encapsulates it within its new contemporary built form. The building was inspired by the town’s identity as a hub of wheat production with steel storage silos and agricultural sheds dotting the landscape. The centre’s form and restrained material palette of timber, steel and glass gives subtle references to the local agricultural context; utilising the craftsmanship of the folded metal inherent in the silos in the form of locally sourced steel and zinc finishes along the building’s exterior.
Mount Macedon House was a significant and challenging design opportunity, with a complex site, strict bushfire protection regulations and specific client brief all playing an important role in the final project outcome.
A long, yet narrow site, it is nestled into the side of Mount Macedon with sweeping views across bushland to the north and north east in a very tranquil and restful setting.
The first stage of Chadstone’s $660 million redevelopment was recently unveiled, reinforcing the retail mecca’s infinite capacity for reinvention.
The latest revamp of the premier shopping and lifestyle destination delivers a centre unlike anything Australia has ever seen, introducing over 100 new retailers, two new dining precincts, a Hoyts digital cinema complex, the Southern Hemisphere’s first LEGOLAND Discovery Centre and a Tesla Motors dealership.
This project on the Mornington foreshore creates two double storey houses on a lot facing Mills Beach and bordering the mouth of Tanti Creek with full utilisation of Habitech’s panel system.
Situated near Melbourne in the Victorian town of Mornington, the brief to design two beach houses was primarily driven by the opportunity to create living spaces with extensive northern views over Port Phillip Bay, and both the opportunities and limitations of its creek side location. One house has been designed for our clients to live in, with the second house being offered for sale upon completion.
Quarry House is a renovation and addition to an existing Victorian terrace in Brunswick East. The design takes its cues from the history of the local area, with particular reference to the brick and bluestone quarrying industries upon which Brunswick was founded. The built form is conceived of as two stacked boxes; the ground floor brick box and the upper storey bluestone box. The existing house was constructed almost entirely of brickwork and the ground floor addition remains faithful to this material. The upper floor recalls the local bluestone industry through a figurative representation of naturally occurring bluestone formations. These tessellated patterns are formed when basaltic lava flows cool to create bluestone, cracking and shearing in geometric arrangements. The upper storey is clad in folded zinc panels which recall columnar basalt, eroded at the rear facade to provide an arched, cave-like outline to the new master bedroom window.