Adelphi Hotel, Melbourne

The Adelphi Hotel was originally constructed in 1938 is located in one of Melbourne’s most famous lane ways at 187 Flinders Lane.

The hotel was purchased and renovated by Denton Corker Marshall Architects in 1989. Its architecture style pushed the conventional design of Melbourne hotels, redefining the type of architecture hotels are supposed to have, and was considered one of the boldest buildings of Melbourne in 1994. It was something unexpected that broke away from Melbourne’s dull reputation compared to Sydney or New York.^[1]

The architecture of the Adelphi Hotel and DCM Architects have contributed a philosophy of playfulness^[2] to Australian architecture, giving a sense of absurdness, exaggerating common architecture principles to an extreme degree.^[2]

History

Formerly a rag trade warehouse built in 1938, it was bought over by Denton Corker Marshall architects in 1989, who converted the building into a boutique hotel.^[3] Construction phase 1 started out from its basement from May 1989 until October 1990. The bistro bar was located in the basement, opened after phase 1 to December 1991, and was temporary closed down for phase 2 construction, which started on January 1992. The hotel officially opened in November 1992.^[4]

In 2013, the hotel was bought over by three new owners, Dion Chandler, Ozzie Kheir and Simon Ongorato, and they hired award-winning design studio Hachem to redesign the hotel's interior and image.^[3]

Description

Situated within the former rag trade building on Flinders Lane, within a dense area of Melbourne's CBD, the original 1930s building is a concrete framed structure, free of columns with beams spanning 3.8 metre centres from wall to wall piers. It was originally designed as a street facade building, with the lane facade rendered in cement with openable steel framed windows to provide lighting from the side. The Flinders Lane facade was painted and rendered, with horizontal full-width strip windows surrounded by projecting concrete heads and sills. The semi-basement level and ground floor were clad with ceramic tiles.

In 1989 DCM Architects began refurbishing the building into the small boutique hotel, retaining much of these original design elements and adding three new levels to the roof of the existing 8 floors.^[4] The Adelphi Hotel stands eleven storeys high with 3.2 metres floor to floor, 8 metres wide and 48 metres deep. Adelphi consists of the half basement bar and cafe. The ground floor half a level up from the street has the hotel reception, lounge, bar and restaurant. There are 34 hotel rooms from levels 3 to 8, with levels 3 to 6 having six rooms per floor. These rooms range from 32sqm to 37sqm and are connected via a single gallery corridor, with the front two rooms being larger to allow interconnection to create a suite. Levels 7 and 8 have five rooms per floor^[4] and a rooftop bar and restaurant area known as the Club Bar in the top three levels. The rooftop swimming pool and the Club Bar are accessible to all guests of the hotel, and locals can join as members for complete access.^[5]

The architecture of Denton Corker Marshall brings a sense of fun and playfulness through its use of bold and vibrant colours and minimalist, specifically detailed designs and geometric forms.^[2] The 'collision' and overlapping of geometric forms suggest that the order of things matter more than the strict geometry.^[2] DCM Architects redirect the viewer's attention through unexpected designs, such as the rooftop's 25 metre long swimming pool (1992).^[6] Unlike conventional hotel swimming pools, DCM designed the pool in the form of a shipping container, cantilevering one metre over the front facade on Flinders Lane with a glass bottom that allows swimmers a bird's-eye view of the street below. This unconventional design also provokes thought on how swimming pools are perceived and how a rooftop pool within the CBD is not restricted to the same design ideologies and material constraints as an in-ground suburban pool.^[2]

DCM's intentions were to keep the original 1938 building intact and to take a careful and considered approach to adding and implementing new features. They created a contrasting order of aesthetics with both designs co-existing with the new design, implementing such elements as stainless steel, aluminium, translucent glass, timber veneered panels and coloured planar surfaces. Coloured panels in vibrant blues, greens, yellows, oranges and reds were overlaid on the natural cement grey render tones.^[6] A deliberate sense of an underlying disturbance in the design reflects the intention of evoking a memorable and unique hotel experience for guests by the architects.

Key influences and design approach

DCM Architects have stayed in hotels around the world, which had an immense influence on their decision to purchase the Adelphi Hotel and how they approached the design.

"I haven't been totally satisfied with any hotel I've stayed in," said John Denton. "We spend a lot of time looking for the best but if we find small, good quality hotels, they don't have a late-night bar or a good restaurant. If we go to a large hotel for the nightlife, then it's not the sort of place we like."^[7]

DCM's design approach was focused around minimalism with the aim of not redesigning the entire building, as this was the cheaper option, as well as a way of maintaining DCM's vision of creating a contrasting effect between the old and new. As a result, most of the exterior of the building was retained, repainted, and covered with aluminium grey tiles to cover the damaged ceramic at the ground level. The new components were implemented to create the "new" presence with the simple geometric forms through the signs, the pool, the rooftop structures that were treated as components fixed or addition to the building which were brightly coloured with blue, yellow, green, orange and red.^[4]

Guests encounter this minimalist design aesthetic in the restaurant, bars, bedrooms, and the dramatic rooftop swimming pool that overhangs on the edge with no apparent safety measures and gives a sense of being on and falling over the edge.^[8] This is considered to be a complete opposite and contrasting design compared to the general design of International hotels where new innovation and disruptive design is inhibited.^[8]

All furniture and rugs were bespoke designed specifically for the hotel by the architects themselves, who wanted everything within the hotel to be Australian-designed and made.^[8]

In expressing what Adelphi Hotel meant to DCM,

"It represents the sort of things we are about architecturally... An interest in detailing, how materials are used, expressing a clarity of materials, using and exploring an interest in forgotten materials such as galvanized steel, perforated metal, stainless steel and plastics. We look for subtlety, cool and calm."^[9]

— John Denton, Zinta Jurjans-Heard (Foyersim) Belle, p.90

Awards

1993 - RAIA National President's Award^[10]

1993 - Winner of Commercial Alterations & Extensions, RAIA Award (VIC)^[11]

1993 - RAIA (VIC) Award (Interiors)^[10]

References

External links

• Adelphi website
• Denton Corker Marshall - Hotels and Hospitality
• Hachem - interior design