Coop Himmelb(l)au + Architectus design propeller-penthouse tower for Beulah competition in Melbourne

The six finalist teams in the “Southbank by Beulah” tower competition aren't holding back with their proposals, in which they have to design a $2 billion mixed-use skyscraper in downtown Melbourne for real estate developer Beulah International. With top architecture firms like Coop Himmelb(l)au, MAD Architects, BIG, MVRDV, OMA, and UNStudio, there's no doubt that competition has been, well, over the top. The winning design is expected to be announced on August 8.

Vienna-based Coop Himmelb(l)au teamed up with local partner Architectus to create “Beulah Propeller City”, which gets its name from the propeller-shaped penthouse that tops the building. Coop Himmelb(l)au shared more details about their design below.

Beulah Propeller City is “a vertical city composed of multiple functions intertwined in a fluid gesture of vertically linked public spaces [...] The maximum possible building envelope was the starting block; the client’s brief, planning regulations, the existing urban form, climate and views to and from site were considerations which prompted the specific carves and manipulations to reveal the dynamic urban figure within,” Coop Himmelb(l)au says. 

To create more connectivity, atria, terraces, community facilities, and recreational and leisurely spaces occupy the interstices of the main building.

“The result of this approach is a unified composition of identifiable building elements comprising low-, mid- and high-rise volumes, which are created by dividing the building's program into its four main functional parts: public podium, office, hotel, and apartment tower.”

Through the design of the external primary structure, the internal construction elements are optimized and reduced to enable maximum flexibility for current uses and adaptability for future needs; this adaptability is a driving factor in the building's design. “Formal decomposition articulating the various programmatic elements defines a new high-rise typology and ultimately serves to make each functional element feel more intimate.”

Find a project video and drawings in the gallery below.

Project credits

Client: Beulah International
Planning: COOP HIMMELB(L)AU Wolf D. Prix & Partner ZT GmbH
Local Partner: Architectus
Principal in Charge: Wolf D. Prix
Project Partners: Markus Prossnigg
Design Architect: Alexander Ott
Project Architect: Benjamin Schmidt

Project Team Vienna: Biernat Paul, Bolojan Daniel, Popovic Vasja, Shir Katz, Konstantinos Papachristopoulos, Coskun Irem, Feil Marco, Pu Yuan, Stievenard Valentin, Rancke Jan, La Chi Nam, Parleva Denitsa

Structural Engineering: B+G Ingenieure, Bollinger und Grohmann GmbH
Urban Planning: Ethos
Urban Engineering/Structural Design/MEP: ARUP
Energy Design: Brian Cody
Placemaking: Village Well
Landscape: TCL
Retail: Benoy
Cultural Consultant: Timmah Ball
Urban Art: UAP
Wayfinding: Büro North
Cost Management: Rider Levett Bucknall
Building Surveyor: du Chateau Chun