Global architecture and design practice Woods Bagot has won a national design competition to create a dynamic mixed-use destination on the Gold Coast. Introducing a new icon to the city’s skyline, a development application has been lodged with the Gold Coast City Council to build a slender dual tower form that is set to be one of, if not the tallest residential building in Australia.
Working closely with Melbourne-based developer Orion International Group and Gold Coast Development Managers CRA Group, the design solution features two conjoined towers reaching 76 (274m) and 103 levels (328m) respectively that will house a true mix of uses; with food and beverage on the ground floor, a 165-key, five-star hotel and residential apartments and a signature restaurant and observation deck at the apex. The design features horizontal gold banding to streamline the facade as it rises into the sky, becoming graduated from the lower floors to emphasise the curvature of the form.
The inward-facing tower facades have an articulated geometry that directs the view outwards, designed to increase privacy for residents while creating an aesthetic that offers a distinct design element to the structure. The ground plane will be punctuated by a dynamic urban village that will provide a sense of legibility and identity at the towers’ base. Low level awnings will define the street edges, grounding the monumental and civic scale of the towers and tower base respectively. A five-storey mixed-use podium will offer active retail zones designed around a sculptural ‘urban canyon’ surrounded by lush planting and landscaped edges to help soften the base of the tower.
The towers are linked at the podium levels by a prominent and elevated curved bridge known as the ‘curious ring’. The ring will reinforce the circular geometry of the towers and the form of the urban canyon. Featuring a large LED matrix screen on the underside of the bridge, the ring will display information such as time, weather and community event details. It is anticipated this modern interpretation of the town square clock tower will become a new meeting place for people to gather. Considering materiality, the upstand on the tower base edges is an important design element that links back to the overall geometry of the tower form.
Heavily articulated, sculpted metal plates, strip lighting and exposed concrete finishes create texture and contrast to green edges, visually defining the podium levels from the streetscape. At the rooftop level, Woods Bagot has proposed the utilisation of digital media glass screens to create sculptural crowns which will further enhance the architectural scheme through decorative lighting. As the Gold Coast rapidly grows into a distinctive, beach-front metropolis, so too does the opportunity to design buildings which contribute to the evolving skyline. Focused on creating an urban destination on the border of Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach, Orion Towers will create a landmark mixed use icon for the region. Source by Woods Bagot.
- Location: Surfers Paradise, Australia
- Architects: Woods Bagot
- Project Team: Ama Adikari, Andre Camargo, Bronwyn McColl, David Lee, Eugene Leung, Felicia Dymalla, Finian O’Dowd, Mark Damant, Mark Nilon, Su Chen
- Woods Bagot bid/ support team: Bianca Toth, Brittany Geils, Daniel Tupas, Daniel Yanez, Graham Whawell, Hendrik De-Wet, Jacelyn Sanderson, Justin Dunn, Lauren Middlin, Matthew Hyland, Olivia Mathisen, Philip Hindmarsh, Tim Jensen, Vinnie Maia
- Development Manager: CRA Group
- Client: Orion International Group
- End Value: approximately $1.2 billion
- GFA: 120,000m2
- Height: Tower 1 328m, tower 2 274m
- Costruction date: over a 10 year time frame
- Images: Courtesy of Woods Bagot