03 171 COLLINS STREET Location Architect Review Photography
Melbourne, Australia Bates Smart Tania Davidge Peter Clarke
PROJECT
171 COLLINS STREET
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01. Internal lobby and atrium space 02. Stone and stair detailing.
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panning from Collins Street to Flinders Lane, Melbourne, Bates Smart’s 171 Collins Street sits quietly in Melbourne’s skyline. For a corporate office tower, housing BHP Billiton’s new global headquarters, it is a remarkably subtle addition to the city. No ordinary commercial office building though, it is slightly elevated behind the neighbouring St Paul’s Cathedral, collecting the sky in its facade, gently breaking the reflections down across the shifting planes of its glazed envelope. The project acts as an extension of Bates Smart’s history of engagement with the typology of the commercial office tower. An engagement begun in 1958 with ICI House (now Orica House) which, at the time of construction, was the tallest office building in Australia. It broke the state of Victoria’s height restriction by more than double and ushered into Melbourne – loudly and proudly – the corporate face of International Modernism. While ICI House and 171 Collins Street have similar ambitions in terms of engineering, attention to detail and the clean execution of a simple, strong idea, there is a clear development in thinking from the brash pragmatic approach of the 1950s. In contrast to the object-like interiority and workplace transparency of the Modernist office tower, 171 Collins Street responds in more nuanced ways to the urban fabric. →
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Level 06 Low Rise Plan
Ground Floor
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PROJECT
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171 COLLINS STREET
Long Section → The form and expression of the project is driven by a relationship with the city, responding to the pragmatics of the planning process and multiple heritage overlays as a source of poetic opportunity instead of a constraint. Planning overlays across the site define a ‘valley’ in the city skyline centred on St Paul’s Cathedral. Bates Smart was very conscious that they were building in this ‘valley’ and concerned that the project not have an overbearing presence on the cathedral. For Kristen Whittle, design architect and director at Bates Smart, it was important that the building engage with the ‘cultural setting it was in and take on a personality and dialogue with the surroundings’. According to Whittle, the practice was ‘looking to draw something from the river corridor, something from the spires and Gothic language of the cathedral, Federation Square and all of the surrounding civic buildings’.
Conceived as a precinct as opposed to a singular tower, the project has a clear and simple diagram. The heritage-listed Mayfair building, which fronts Collins Street, has been retained in its footprint as a distinct element. Having undergone many renovations in its history, the Mayfair now acts as an independent building. Its depth forms an extended, arched entrance into the soaring atrium space that separates the Mayfair from the new tower behind. The inserted tower has a side core configuration, which enables the creation of an internal lane that connects directly from Collins Street to Flinders Lane. The choice of materials in the atrium and laneway subtly alludes to BHP Billiton’s presence in the building. The stone floor is hardwearing, silver-grey dolerite and travertine clads the walls, displaying a sedimentary banding that resonates with the business of a global resources company. 064
Above the atrium travertine, a dramatic cascade of forty tonnes of clear glass plate cantilevers from the precast concrete walls, catching the light that enters from the glazed roof above. The gently angled triangular glass plates are a response to pragmatics, as well as aesthetics, creating a waterfall of natural light and reflection that obscures the overlooking windows of the adjacent building and the Mayfair. The overall effect is not harsh, but has a delicate edge, and the honed stone floor and walls add to the soaring softness created by the gentle fracturing of light. Through the clear glass ceiling of the atrium, the envelope of the tower, not →
03. The Mayfair – a heritage building that functions as an extended entrance to the new building at the rear.
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171 COLLINS STREET
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→ readily evident from Collins Street, is brought into focus. Six-metre wide ribbons of undulating glass rise vertically up the building’s elevation. The ribbons weave in and out, taking advantage of the ability to embellish the building 300mm beyond the boundary line. The overall shift in plane is merely 600mm but the effect that this movement has on the way the building interacts with the skyline and Melbourne’s changeable weather is understated yet effective. Bates Smart was interested in achieving a more opaque reading of the exterior skin in contrast to the transparency of the typical office workplace. The use of white fritted glass on the facade creates a translucency rather than a transparency. This allows the building’s envelope to take on the qualities of the changing light so particular to Melbourne weather, rather than simply reflecting it. The frit in the glass is created with a net and goes to the very edge of the glass – a more expensive option than the typical detail, which stops short of the edge, articulating the joints between glass panels. Taking the frit to the edge was important to create a more seamless effect, emphasising the movement of the glazing ‘ribbons’ that form the building’s envelope. Scientific, unbiased animated renders were commissioned, during the design process, to explain how the sky’s changing conditions would interact with the building. This ability to communicate the intent of the glazing effectively gave the client and the planning authorities the assurance of the building’s performance in a sensitive part of the city skyline. One might imagine that the opacity of the facade would create a harder edge to the building and reinforce an object-like quality, but this is not the case. The glass ribbons of the skin create an elevational faceting, breaking the hard edges often typical of an office tower; and the translucency of the skin takes on the light of the city, blending the building into the built environment without diminishing its poetics. Whittle describes the building as an ‘essay in light’. For him, the project was about a desire ‘to create subtlety and gravitas as opposed to an overtly graphic story’. In a city known for its architectural Expressionism, 171 Collins Street is a subtle and responsive addition to the skyline. And, in Bates Smart’s legacy of office towers, this dialogue with the city is an important development for the way we think about commercial projects. It reminds us that, although the iconic is important, a quiet, thoughtful move has much to offer as well. More importantly, it reminds us that it is not only the concern of civic public buildings to respond to the fabric of the city, it is the concern of all built form.
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Atrium glazing: Typical stack joint a. Laminated glass b. Structural sealant c. Polished clear anodised aluminium extruded bottom rail d. Silicon setting block e. Polished clear anodised aluminium extruded head rail f. Stainless steel bolt with nylon lining g. Aluminium spigot fixing plate h. Stainless steel grub screw
i. Natural anodised aluminium extruded circular beam j. Aluminium spigot connection at beam k. Laminated glass beyond l. Powdercoated steel fixing bracket m. Steel fixing bracket top plate n. Polished clear anodised rail beyond.
Project Details Architect: Bates Smart / Architectural team: Kristen Whittle, Jim Milledge, Roger Poole, Tim Leslie, Cameron Donald, Andrew Raftopoulos, Jarrad Morgan, Peter Knight, James Christophidis, Brian Mason, Verena Unser, Peter Goh, Chris White, Simon Rich, Michael Fischer, Guilherme Rodrigues, Fred Ng, Matt Hainsworth / Interior design team: Grant Filipoff, Ben Nicholas, Kate Wardlaw / Client: Charter Hall & Cbus Property (Joint Venture) / Project manager: APP Corporation / Builder: Brookfield Multiplex / Facade engineering: BG&E Facades / Conservation architect: Lovell Chen / Structural engineering: Winward Structures / Services engineering: Umow Lai / Specialist lighting: Electrolight / Quantity surveyor: Rider Levett Bucknall / Building surveyor: PLP Building Surveyors / Signage: Fabio Ongarato Design / Façade development – virtual testing: Luminova / Size: Site Area 2,955sqm, Office Floor Area 31,400sqm / Time to complete: Construction December 2011–May 2013 / Council: Melbourne City Council / Design software: AutoCAD, 3D Studio Max.
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