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The mixed use development in Melbourne designed by HASSELL for the Artemis Hotel Group will twist 62 storeys into the sky, becoming an immediate landmark on the city's skyline.

97 Franklin Street will offer a mix of residential and serviced apartments, along with limited commercial and retail opportunities. The building will be split into three elements – a podium, a low rise section and the high rise tower. Placed on top of each other, the three elements will be rotated to enhance the outlook of each one, maximising views and sunlight.

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"It is a relatively large site in this part of the city and that made it possible to rotate the different levels," said HASSELL Principal Ben Duckworth. "The rotation allows us to provide what you might call elbow room for the building and for its neighbours."

The HASSELL proposal for the site has been submitted for development approval.

Under the proposal, the podium level fronts on to Franklin Street and houses the residential carpark and serviced apartments which Artemis will operate. Retail and commercial spaces will be incorporated in the first three floors to create street level activation. The ground level forecourt offers an "urban forest" to both residents and the general public.

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The low-rise volume sits on top of the podium perpendicular to the road. It is centered between the existing tower to the east and the future development on 450 Elizabeth Street. This allows for daylight penetration from the north into the full depth of the site and achieves maximum setbacks between the surrounding developments and 97 Franklin Street.

The high-rise element houses residential apartments. It is rotated at 90 degrees to the low-rise, maximising its solar access. The orientation along the city grid brings morning and evening sunlight on to the southerly face. People living on the high-rise floors will enjoy large northern city vistas as well as southern views of Melbourne's central business district. They will share communal lounge and dining facilities which sit at the rotation point of the tower and extend into the terraces on top of the central volume.

The tower's façade is a grid, consisting of slender profiles that add a fine grain to the building's appearance.

At ground level, there would be new pedestrian connections through a proposed laneway on the western boundary of the site.

The brief from the Artemis Hotel Group was for a mixed use development with an unique identity, and we have achieved that with a building that is bold and distinctive in the way it takes full advantage of the site.

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All Images © Hassell

Project Facts

Client:Artemis Hotel Group

Discipline: Architecture Interior Design

Expertise:Residential

Scale:52,000 sqm

Year:2016

Location:Melbourne, Australia

Photography:Images by Doug & Wolf

Status:Work in progress

> via HASSELL