Dulux Colour Awards 2024

About the project

This heritage building project features 26 single-room dwellings around communal rooms, mixed-use tenancies and public spaces. Colour, subtle materials and proportion were used to provide a cohesive look instead of screens, shadow lines and glazed links. The existing greens and reds are reinterpreted and applied to unite the existing and the building's new facades visually.

What the judges said

"Highly skillful, maturely executed and seductive in its completeness, this project exemplifies the potential of student work to be brave and uncompromising. Its premise was to save a beloved heritage hotel from demolition and reimagine it as community housing.

"Set in on a prominent site in Melbourne’s gritty inner city, the external palette balances the need for a contemporary public statement and respect for its historic familiarity.

"The application of colour and project design shows mature restraint and demonstrates that even a little colour can be extremely impactful. We also commend the choice of a neutral white, which works brilliantly with the other traditional colours used throughout the project. It’s entirely plausible to imagine this proposal coming to fruition with resounding success."

Andrea Lucena-Orr, judge