Big Interior Energy: Ovolo Hotel South Yarra by Luchetti Krelle.

Luchetti Krelle has gone full glam for the interior of the new Ovolo South Yarra. Pop Art elements are spliced with contemporary installations as the Sydney-based studio integrated works by local and international artists. Graphic wallpaper, gleaming chrome, punchy patterns, plush furnishings and bold primal hues grant the hotel with a heady dose of rock ’n’ roll anarchy spritzed with jet-set flair.

Sitting on the intersection of Toorak Road and Chapel Street in Melbourne — a cosmopolitan hub of hospitality and retail — the vibe is loud and young, prioritising comfort amongst the artistic beats of connection. The 123-room hotel was designed in response to the rise of the digital nomad, offering large inspirational spaces to work and mingle in, while devoting over 60 per cent of the rooms to a 15sqm micro footprint.

Woods Bagot-designed six-level concrete building with exposed services provides the foundation for Luchetti Krelle’s kaleidoscopic layers of colour and seventies references from floor to ceiling. Taking its design cues from the era’s preoccupation with space travel, rock god idolisation and nightlife glamour, custom details explore the themes of retro-futurism — the tension between past styles and futuristic technology. This nostalgia is bolstered via integrated art installations and artworks commissioned and selected by Luchetti Krelle and Ovolo Group owner, Girish Jhunjhnuwala, featuring works by predominantly French, Australian and American artists. They include Mr. Brainwash, Punk Me Tender, Pascal Guetta, Ben Tankard and the renowned Jisbar who appropriates the great masters — from Da Vinci to Warhol — with graffiti street smarts. Combined, they form one of the largest private art collections in an Australian Hotel.

The lobby’s raw brutalist and monolithic forms clash with energetic hues and eclectic memorabilia. A figurative neon fireplace with a bright orange flue demarcates the interior hub with its curved concrete and leather seating. The concierge, with wayfinding and branding by Anna Roberts, comprises a concrete pedestal akin to a futuristic airport check-in. Behind, a jigsaw of concrete cubicles, a play on the concrete waffle slab ceilings of the seventies is filled with artefacts and curiosities, engaging guests on a forensic journey of discovery. Other evocative elements include a condensed hang of seventies icons above the lifts featuring contemporary paintings of Bowie and Freddie Mercury plus iconic literature and film references. Within the vast internal lightwell, circular chrome car mirrors arranged in parallel rows like vintage decorative Scandinavian organic motifs reflect and refract light, drawing the eye to the lounge action below.

Inside the rooms, economies of space are highly considered. Under bed storage, sliding fluted internal glass doors and open shelving with hanging rails ‘open’ the rooms up as opposed to clunky timber joinery and doors, whilst ironing boards are tucked behind mirrors. Prioritising comfort, ‘single’ beds are in fact customised queen-size length and generously wide. Sinks migrate from the en-suites to the entry passage for convenience and considerable elbow room, featuring a neighbouring water dispenser to simultaneously hydrate guests and reduce the bar fridge’s plastic waste. Bands of retro seventies tones including tangerines and browns tether these entry level guest rooms via arched bedheads and feature wall murals, escaping into the hallways to connect the spaces stylistically.

Related: Tattersalls Hotel in Armidale by Luchetti Krelle.

[Images courtesy of Luchetti Krelle. Photography by Sean Fennessy.]