CRA Head office Competition - Melbourne
The owner of the land at the time (the early 1970s), Conzinc Riotinto Australia, was testing the idea of providing a head office complex for its Australian operations and subsidiaries. It was considering to consolidate the existing land holding by acquisitions of adjacent land between Collins Street, Flinders Lane, and Exhibition Street in Melbourne.
An architectural competition was initiated for the design of this complex, and a number of architects were invited to participate.
I was working for Peddle Thorp and dePreu in the design team.
view from the Yarra riverWe submitted a number of designs, including my somewhat radical idea of leaving the majority of the ground floor open to Collins Street as a large Plaza, containing only the lobbies to the two towers, and access to the lower level retail areas.Entrance level from Collins Street
The lowest part of the building was facing Collins Street, while the towers where back.
This way the impact of this enormous building on the streetscape was very much minimised.
The project was never built due to the restructure of the company.
ground floor plan
The building envelope provided some areas with large floor space per floor and others with smaller spaces, but all of them with good natural light.
The urban design aspect could have provided spacial relief from the existing rigid street shape.

(for enlargment of the picturs click them with right button)


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