The architects undertook a feasibility study to devise a design for a vacant corner site that embraced a local texture and provided a contextual response unique to its location. The project team recognised a demand in the area for short-term stays and created a design for a hotel that engaged with the community and connected with local ventures. Boasting a robust and simple stacked form and weathering steel façade, the building is intended to blend in with the area’s light-industrial heritage. The generous building is made to feel sympathetic, with a masterplan that allows for its neighbours to grow. The stepped design of the building also reduces shadow to its neighbouring terrace houses, more so than the former building on the site. W-B channelled a “hyperlocal” design to create a building that spoke to place; the built form was designed to resemble the typology of Fitzroy’s prominent corner pubs – solid in nature with a singular materiality and punched windows – while the weathered Corten steel is intended to reference the light-industrial heritage of Melbourne’s oldest suburb.

Photography: Trevor Mein