Laurence Grigorov, who is director of a Johannesburg-based
property development company, often looks for inspiration from international
architectural design trends. This allows Laurence Grigorov to continually keep
the development projects that the company is involved in, fresh and current.
A new project which is Laurence Grigorov believes is significant is a competition, run by developer Beulah International, to design a £1.1 billion mixed use development in the Australian city of Melbourne which has drawn entries from some of the world's best-known architects.
Supertall skyscrapers with rainbow facades and shaped like a mountain piercing a light-up cloud are on the shortlist for Southbank – a new tower in Melbourne, which if built would be Australia's tallest building.
Six designs for supertall towers have been shortlisted from
the following teams: Bjarke Ingels Group with Fender Katsalidis Architects,
Coop Himmelb(l)au with Architectus, MAD Architects with Elenberg Fraser, MVRDV
with Woods Bagot, OMA with Conrad Gargett, and UNStudio with Cox Architecture.
The developer purchased over 6,061 square metres of land on
the Southbank Boulevard last year, and plan to turn it into a new
"lifestyle precinct" with a hotel, shops and apartments along with
cultural and public spaces.
Beijing-based MAD Architects and local architecture firm
Elenberg Fraser have proposed Urban Tree, a 360-metre-high "mountain
village" surrounded by foothills, with a hotel shaped like an illuminated
cloud near its summit.
Green Spine is the competition entry from Dutch
architectural practice UNStudio and Australian firm Cox Architecture. It
features two twisting towers with glass facades on their outer edges and
terraced gardens on the inner sides. The 356.2-metre-high residential tower
would be topped by publicly accessible botanic gardens. A shorter office and
hotel tower would be 252.2-metres high.
Copenhagen and New York-based BIG and Melbourne's Fender
Katsalidis Architects have proposed two 359.6-metre high interlocking blocks.
Called the Lanescraper, its stacked shape would provide both stability and
natural points of connectivity between the towers.
A two-tiered concentric auditorium in one section would be
able to hold 3,000 people, while a BMW experience centre would span four floors
with a central void filled by a car lift surrounded by a spiral staircase.
The Beulah Propeller City is the shortlisted entry from
Viennese architecture firm Coop Himmelb(l)au and Melbourne-based Architectus.
Shaped like a tri-blade propeller, the 335-metre-high tower would be topped by
a penthouse with its own private landscape garden and pool.
Residential areas would be prioritised, with 46 floors of
apartments featuring high ceilings and full length glazing. The hotel would
comprise 15 floors and have its own winter garden complete with tropical
vegetation and a swimming pool.
Dutch firm MVRDV and Australian architects Woods Bagot have
proposed Stack, an "interconnected vertical city" that would rise 359
metres above the city. Stacked neighbourhoods in the city would be demarcated
by different textures in the facade
In the centre of the tower a hotel pool with an underwater
glass window would be surrounded by stepped terraces. Elsewhere in the
skyscraper visitors could enjoy a tropical garden where residents would be able
to job or walk their dog along treetop walkways.
Rotterdam-based OMA and Brisbane architecture practice
Conrad Gargett's unnamed proposal for the Southbank is a colourful take on the
traditional vaulted markets and arcades found in Melbourne.
Emphasising the foot of the tower rather than the top, a
"vertical city" would be built between arches supporting a
rainbow-coloured facade. All the cultural, commercial and educational functions
of the development would be located here, with the hotel, residences and
offices placed in the tower above to give them the most light.
The winning design will be announced 2018.
Laurence Grigorov is often influenced by modern design
trends and ideas and uses these as inspiration in the company’s architectural
style.
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| Melbourne Australia |
