Impossible Reality by Elenberg Fraser // 33 MacKenzie Street Residential Tower in Melbourne.

It’s certainly not every day that I come across a multi residential tower that makes me squeal with excitmenet. And by “not every day” I mean – hardly ever. Particularly when we are taking about our beloved country permanently stained by countless examples of poorly designed, uninspiring, plain f*cking ugly residential developments. Pardon the French, but this issue causes profound levels of frustration in me.

Alas, we are here to celebrate the good instead of the evil. Needless to say, I was absolutely thrilled to discover the latest residential project by the formidable Melbourne studio Elenberg Fraser, well known for their ability to combine high-level design concepts with commercially viable projects. I shall leave the rest of the “talking” to the studio, as their words perfectly describe the design concept and the way it was interpreted. Music to my ears.

“Positioned at the edge of Melbourne’s CBD, this tower creates a vertical village that follows a story of ascendance and transcendence, inspired by the ancient myths of the angel Metatron (or Enoch, or Elijah) and Pandora’s Box.”

“As you enter the lobby you open Pandora’s box and ascendance shifts to transcendance, as infinite mirrors create the sensation of a body suspended in space. The overall impression is of a box cracked open, bronze and patterned light forming a path through the black depths.”

“This project’s massing is crucial to its design. Broken into a series of six white, concrete towers of varying heights, and bound by a central lift core, 33M’s profile mirrors Melbourne’s skyline, creating a city within a city – a juxtaposed silhouette of its geographic context.”

“The buildings are clad in Metatron’s feathers, at the lower levels the loose feathers wrap around all four sides of the podium, forming a sunshade around the bronze glass. The upper levels of the tower are abutted with white concrete panels that also feature feather-like forms, giving them nap and grain. Balconies are recessed into the tower blocks so that the eye reads the full form.”

“The feathers cue you to look skyward – 33M’s vertical villages culminate in a variety of shared social spaces at the top of each tower, giving residents the convenience of apartment living with an unexpected luxury of space.”

“There are four rooftop garden areas, designed in collaboration with Oculus, which have garden walls, sun lounges and a pool.”

Amazing, no? I just wanted to voice a tiny bit of concern – how could you live in this building and feel it was ok to sloth in your trackies? I mean, you could never run down to take out the rubbish, check the mail or buy some toilet paper from the servo in your daggies. Living here would require a whole new wardrobe and a lifestyle.

[Exquisite photography by Peter Clarke. Images courtesy of Elenberg Fraser.]