The winner of the City of Melbourne's 2025 City Design Award, which recognises design excellence in architecture, landscape architecture and urban design, has been named as part of the council's annual Melbourne Awards program.
This year's winner is Melbourne Place by Kennedy Nolan - a new hotel in the city centre that involved a "complete design" of the built exterior and interior. The project emerged from collaboration with the broader project team and client on the hotel brand, which is based on the idea of the hotel as a place for tourists and locals alike. The project's design is specific to the particular architectural and cultural identity of the east end of Melbourne's CBD, employing a red-hued brick and concrete materiality that reinforces the site's twentieth-century quality.
The jury, which comprised professor Martyn Hook (associate deputy vice-chancellor, Precincts, at RMIT University), Sarah Lynn Rees (associate principal and lead Indigenous advisor, Jackson Clements Burrows Architects), Tim Leslie (principal adviser, Design Review, at the Office of the Victorian Government Architect), Naomi Barun (president, Australian Institute of Landscape Architects) and Lucia Amies (associate editor, ArchitectureAu), described the project as a "catalyst to renewal" of the surrounding urban fabric.
They praised the design team's "sophisticated and clever design approach", which resulted in the project's "playful, quirky" form, activation of the street and surrounding laneway, and locally inspired material palette. They also admired the evolving approach to landscape, led by Amanda Oliver, across the building's facade.
Melbourne Place was selected as the winner from a shortlist of four finalists.
ArchitectureAu is the presenting partner of the Melbourne Awards 2025 - City Design Award.
