54 Wellington | Wardle
Two contemporary commercial buildings are set within a collection of existing functioning telephone exchange in Collingwood. The buildings create an exemplary workplace for sustainability, health and wellbeing while respecting heritage and encouraging commerce.
A lower scale companion building defines a new laneway through the site. The taller main building is set back from Wellington Street, attracting activity and creating an intimate location for tenants and community.
The companion building is a solid campanile form with a bronze patina. A private roof garden is a verdant, green contrast to the urban setting. To the south a sawtooth roof form, is turned on its end to create a fourstorey glazed façade that draws in diffuse southern daylight.
The main office building incorporates an ordered pattern language that recalls the façade explorations of early Melbourne modernism. An emphasis on the vertical creates an unusual façade grid with sun shading fins providing additional texture.
