he Plus Architecture-designed commercial building at 9-11 Claremont Street, South Yarra in Melbourne has been completed. The $16 million six-storey development includes 4119m2 of office space across four levels, a Dutton showroom, a penthouse apartment and three levels of basement parking for 121 cars. The Dutton showroom will feature European and Prestige cars from around the world and the Café Veloce will be an extension of the showroom. The total gross building area of the development is 10,463m2.
The design features a concrete façade treatment reflecting not only the building’s mixed use but also the cosmopolitan character of South Yarra. Ian Briggs, director at Plus Architecture, says rubber form liners were used on the project because multiple precast panels can be created from one form liner. The firm sand blasted the panels to remove slight imperfections from where two rubber liners were used on the larger panels. The garage door to the showroom is like a ‘bat cave’ that was designed to be fun rather than a standard garage door. The artwork that forms the door itself continues inside and wraps around the mail box enclosure. Briggs says the firm quite often continues the same material from inside to outside to add a sense of drama and playfulness.
Inside the office, some roof areas have been patterned, which is laser cut MDF boards painted in two pack high gloss white and created by the firm in-house. The openings in the panel form the return air grill for the air-conditioning and are lined on the back with acoustic mats. Plus says: “It gives an otherwise very masculine space a touch of femininity — it gives some balance”. In the reception and boardroom area, recycled timber ironbark has been used from an old warehouse and the marble is Pietra grey. These materials divide the space up into two halves and accentuate the lineal nature of the combined boardroom and reception. The ceiling is also broken up on the same lines with perforated plasterboard and exposed concrete.
