Orbis is a new apartment building in inner-suburban South Melbourne.
Its golden composite façade looks as if giant spheres have been pressed into it to create huge convex curves with jutting corners between them. A gold ball, sticking out of the fifth floor, creates two levels of bulging balconies with multi-directional views.
Viewed from the street, the building’s silhouette seems to rise and curl and dart.
The entrance is through an almost spherical tunnel of polished metal that produces startling and wonderful reflections as you pass through. It was inspired by the smooth shiny curves on works by British-Indian sculptor Anish Kapoor.
For Orbis, our goal has been to design highestquality apartments in a building that expresses the vitality of city life. The Viennese architect Adolf Loos believed that besides being places to live, apartment buildings should contribute to the quality of their civic surroundings.
