Victoria Gardens

Ambience Upgrade

Victoria Gardens shopping centre is a key destination for Melbourne home-makers, offering a hub for interior design inspiration through a strong stable of iconic retailers, including Ikea, Freedom and Kmart. The Centre's ambience upgrade speaks a design language that is uniquely ‘residential’, drawing upon the contemporary architectural vernacular of the Richmond precinct.

The project narrative conceptualised each type of public space as a room within an urban residential setting; the entries were modelled upon a contemporary apartment development lobby, featuring bespoke brick work, steel portal windows and planters. The public waiting areas were envisaged as residential reading nooks and the food court as a communal courtyard. This language framed the project direction from start to finish and informed the aesthetic direction, materiality and scale of all parts of the refurbishment.

Photography: Hannah Caldwell