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Project Name: W Hotel Melbourne

Location: Melbourne Victoria

Date Completed: March 2021

Architect: Hachem Architecture

Developer: Diasho Developments & Cbus Property

Construction Company: Multiplex

W Hotel brand standards dictate that a hotel reflect its host city, aesthetically and culturally. To ensure this goal was authentically met, Hachem challenged significant aspects of the design brief with a view to integrating the design solution under the headline theme of ‘reveal to revel’. What followed was a single-minded dedication to that core idea. As an example of Hachem’s attention to detail, we successfully lobbied for the hotel’s address to change from Collins Street to Flinders Lane. This was because Flinders Lane is renowned for its rich history of artisan trade and, more recently, excellent dining.

A major goal of the revised brief was to ensure nothing was homogeneous or expected. From the moment a guest arrives, they are transported through a kaleidoscope of experiences that arouse the five senses. The porte-cochère is dark and moody, lit by a brilliant sculpture that seems to magically transform from the letter ‘W’ (W Hotel) to the letter ‘M’ (Melbourne) as it is circled. The lobby symbolises a classic Melbourne laneway, complete with soaring lenticular wall art that presents as a classy timber face to the corporate entrance and gradually reveals its full grandeur as you walk towards the hotel’s Flinders Lane entrance.

Rooms appropriate Melbourne’s distinctive metal-covered street kiosks as signature wardrobe installations, and walls incorporate a novel pull-back lighting feature. The ground level bar is playful and intriguing as guests experience a marvellous journey through a wooden cocoon that feels like the entrance to a new dimension. The top level, originally planned as a typical residential pool, was converted into a profitable wet-deck function space with a bar that fits brilliantly with the W’s maverick attitude. The interior design solutions at W Melbourne are unconstrained and beyond compare. This is thought-provoking, innovative and intelligent design on a scale that is anomalous for large hotels.

The W brand is renowned for its bold and distinctive identity and this promise has been realised with a breathtaking new addition to the city’s hotel landscape. When Hachem was appointed to conceive the interior solutions for W Melbourne, the building was already in progress. Hachem designs to a holistic strategy that considers the guest experience from all angles. In this case, the goal was to authentically capture the essence of the hotel’s host city, Melbourne. The theme plays out in delightful and unexpected ways across the entire hotel; the more a guest explores, the more the hotel reveals of itself. The history of Melbourne is one of a maverick, rebellious attitude. This spirit is represented by distinctive art pieces, atypical guest rooms and a refusal to conform with orthodox hotel design principles. The design outcome is one that pushes the boundaries and reimagines the experience of what a hotel stay can offer.