Precedent Studies - The Canada Hotel, Melbourne

North Elevation

The Canada Hotel, Melbounre
Architect: Hayball

• Student accommodation – 219 one bedroom apartments.
• 13 levels integrated with the historic Canada hotel.
• Façade comprised of stacked geometric panels with the flare of the “Melbourne school of architecture”
• Prefab construction to control cost.

Concrete curtain façade and truss-deck flooring.

Pre-finished surfaces to limit onsite painting etc.

• Retail and café tenancies are located on the ground floor.
• Locate context makes up the colour/pattern of the interior and external balconies

North Elevation Detail - Facade & Old vs New

North Elevation & Floor Plans

The Canada Hotel redevelopment is a student accommodation project that provides one bedroom apartments on the site of the historic Canada Hotel. 

Whilst the new building brings to life the old hotel, its form and construction honours the historic hotel by being set back from Swanston Street. 

The entry to the building is marked by a dark fissure that is seemingly carved between the new and existing structures. An undulating, blackened ceiling completes the cave-like experience and escorts entrants to the reception and lift lobby.

When looking at the plans the ground floor is very public with off street retail outlets, foyer, car parking, services. Unlike the upper floors where its is primarily apartments. 

Each individual rooms have the same layout of; A en-suite, sleeping/living area separated by a partition wall. Each room had cupboard and storage space, desks and a kitchenette.

Each apartment opens on to a corridor with vertical circulation(as expected) There is no common area or meeting points on any of the floors. This prompts me to believe that social interaction is carried out on the ground floor and/or outside the building.