Building community: How Southbank's Melbourne Square is designed to foster wellness

When an apartment building is home to a connected community, it becomes the address others covet.

The key to such a community is comfort and well-being. This ethos was at the heart of Southbank’s huge Melbourne Square that will be home to more than 1000 residents in the first stage of its construction.

Moulding a social community drove developers OSK Property to formulate a list of comforts that would not only encourage neighbours to gather, but to feel happy and engaged.

Interior designer Chris McCue says the communal areas, including a 3700-square-metre park to a resort-style pool, are essentially a commitment to residents’ wellness.

“The whole aim was to provide amenities where people can get to know their neighbours, really foster a sense of community within the building and create this amazing health and wellbeing development that’s anchored by the park at the front of the site,” he says.

The long list of amenities at the $2.8 billion development begins with an outdoor pool, park and dining spaces at the level eight podium. Residents living on level 54 and above will enjoy the exclusive Skye Club, which offers private meeting and dining rooms, a 25-metre pool, gym and pool lounges. Additional shared spaces include a theatre, sun terrace, music room, table tennis room and golf simulator.

“I know from having lived in apartment buildings internationally you don’t often see your neighbours and it’s harder to create a sense of community, so these really help in doing that,” says McCue.

McCue, director at Carr Design, researched international examples of amenity rich luxury apartment towers for inspiration.

Among those was the 432 Park Avenue skyscraper in New York, which boasts a 23-metre pool with city views, a suite of spas, saunas and massage therapy rooms, a gym staffed with personal trainers, a conference room, cinema, wine cellars, billiards tables and library. There are even studio suites available for residents to purchase as living quarters for maids and nannies.

Another Manhattan apartment tower, 56 Leonard, provided more inspiration with its sun deck, spa, yoga studio, indoor-outdoor theatre, catering kitchen and a children’s play area called the Tribeca Tot Room.

“We looked at New York where the apartment market is obviously very mature and certainly the luxury end of the market,” McCue says.

“I think the Australian market is definitely maturing at a really fast rate. With that comes a refinement on what the apartment offer should be.”

The architecture of Melbourne Square is defined by a simple pleat motif. Cox Architecture and Carr Design have collaborated to adorn the exterior and interior of the building with elegant tucks and folds.

Residents will find pleats inside their apartments when they open the bathroom drawers and admire their kitchen island benches. They will also spy them on the ceilings above the pool, lobby and dining area.

“The idea of the pleated language is carried through so you’ve got this subtle referencing all the way through that gives a different character,” Paul Curry, director at Cox, says.

Curry says the collaboration between the design team, including landscape architects at TCL, has resulted in a united vision at Melbourne Square.

“You might live in the sky, but with Melbourne Square you’ve got access to the parkland at the base of the towers and all the common facilities on the rooftop and the podium so everything about the project ties together really well,” he says.