An architectural solution for a constrained site…

Standing at 69 stories and occupying a compact site, 568 Collins Street is one of central Melbourne’s tallest towers and a feat of shrewd building design.

Site specific building design

Despite the relatively small Collins Street site, the vision for the tower was for 568 apartments across 51 levels, 12 office spaces and a 10-storey podium car park for 266 cars as well as a pool, spa, sauna, gym, entertainment room and business centre.

For a necessarily narrow tower to accommodate this volume, it needed to be articulated into three distinct vertical strata that would offset the slender form. These vertical strata also give the building its distinctive character, concluding in a staggered line to create a crown form.

Varying form to create architectural interest

Each of the three strata was treated with a consistent architectural expression, which served multiple purposes, such as enabling varying setbacks.

Deep balcony reveals at the boundaries of adjacent strata and playing with contrasting light and shadows at the junctions allows them to be delineated and defined. This generated a simple yet immediately iconic tower which is now a recognisable feature on the busy Collins Street streetscape.