UNStudio Wins Beulah Southbank Competition

The winning proposal by UNStudio with Cox Architecture was selected by a seven-member jury. The team bested five other teams that were shortlisted in April: BIG with Fender Katsalidis Architects, Coop Himmelb(l)au with Architectus, MAD Architects with Elenberg Fraser, MVRDV with Woods Bagot, and OMA with Conrad Gargett. Of the lead design architects, only OMA has realized a project in Australia to date.

"Green Spine" features a mixed-use podium with retail, entertainment spaces, a public rooftop park, and a BMW Experience Center (the site is currently a BMW dealership). Rising from the podium are two towers: a 360-meter residential tower and a 246-meter tower with hotel and commercial space. Each tower twists "to reveal the almost geographical strata of their core layers" and visually extend Southbank Boulevard upward.

This extension of Southbank Boulevard is created by stepping the podium with stairs and terraces that provide access to the public podium. Per a press release from UNStudio, the podium and its rooftop park are reserved for public use. At the same time, the whole project is described as a "city within a city," given its mix of residential, commercial, retail, leisure, and even cultural uses.

Beulah International's Southbank development is budgeted to cost more than $2 billion. The nearly 360-meter residential tower would make the project the tallest in Australia, more than 35 meters taller than the Q1 Tower in Gold Coast.