Beyoncé video inspires Elenberg Fraser’s Melbourne skyscraper and hotel
by Jason Holland | 10 Jul 2015
A new 160-room hotel in Melbourne will give guests the chance to stay the night with Beyoncé – or at least inside a curvy skyscraper inspired by the global superstar.
Australian architect Elenberg Fraser’s 226m (741ft) high Premier Tower features a series of curves and bulges and its form pays homage to Beyoncé’s ‘Ghost’ music video – in which naked dancers gyrate while wrapped in stretchy fabric.
Planning approval has now been granted for the 68-storey structure, and while no scheduled completion date has been released, work is projected to take 40 months.
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Taking inspiration from Beyoncé certainly adds a touch of glamour to the project, but Elenberg Fraser says the building has been designed using simple but elegant scientific techniques. Specifically, the firm used parametric modelling techniques – a type of computer-aided design based on algorithms that allow complex shapes to be formed taking account of data constraints.
The result is a complex vertical cantilever, which the architect says is the most effective way to redistribute the building’s mass, “giving the best results in terms of structural dispersion, frequency oscillation and wind requirements”.
The mixed-use development will feature 660 apartments and retail space in addition to the hotel. Premier Tower is located in front of the Australian city’s Southern Cross station in its central business district.
Singapore’s Fragrance Group are the developers behind the project, and Oculus have been appointed as landscape architects.
Elenberg Fraser’s structure will be a distinctive landmark for Melbourne Credit: Elenberg Fraser / Pointilism
Parametric modelling techniques informed the design of the skyscraper Credit: Elenberg Fraser / Pointilism
A new 160-room hotel in Melbourne will give guests the chance to stay the night with Beyoncé – or at least inside a curvy skyscraper inspired by the global superstar. Australian architect Elenberg Fraser’s 226m (741ft) high Premier Tower features a series of curves and bulges and its form pays homage to Beyoncé’s ‘Ghost’ music video – in which naked dancers gyrate while wrapped in stretchy fabric.
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