New South Brisbane hotel on exhibition
Plans are currently on exhibition on the Brisbane City Council website for a new hotel in South Brisbane designed by Bates Smart. The practice’s vision for the new Merivale Hotel project is to create a “relaxed urban retreat […] and authentic experience, derived from South Bank’s cultural identity.”
Located opposite the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre to the north and Musgrave Park to the south, the proposed luxury hotel contains 137 suites set within a lush, subtropical laneway setting. The site is only a few blocks away from Bates Smart and Richards and Spence’s proposal for a 216-suite hotel within a larger residential and commercial complex at 164 Melbourne Street.
According to Bates Smart’s design report, the firm’s approach to the Merivale Hotel has been underpinned by three pillars: assimilating the project into the neighbourhood character, realising the hotel as a mechanism for discovering the city through providing “excellent amenity,” and responding sympathetically to the specific project site.
The proposal for the new hotel is intended as a companion building to the existing Novotel hotel, and includes a cross-block public laneway connection between Merivale and Cordelia streets along the south-east boundary of the site. By sharing the existing basement access, loading dock and services infrastructure, Bates Smart argues that the proposal “will free up the Merivale site frontage and allow for opportunities to enhance and activate the streetscape.”
View gallery
On the ground floor, the hotel’s proposed café/bar and all-day dining spill out onto the public laneway. Subtropical planting is intended to further connect the laneway with the double-height lobby and dining spaces, which are located beneath a perimeter of suspended mezzanine planters.
Above the three-storey podium, the hotel rises a further 12 storeys. The thirteenth floor is dedicated to wellness facilities, including a city-facing pool, hot and cold plunge pools, steam room, sauna and treatment rooms. The floor above includes a bar and restaurant with indoor, outdoor and private dining.
According to Bates Smart director Mathieu le Sueur, “Together, these spaces create a dynamic rooftop atmosphere. Their design is relaxed but luxe, extending the feeling of context, climate and subtropical landscape from the ground floor to the top of the hotel.”
“The indoor/outdoor restaurant and bar – housed in an impressive steel and glass structure – backdrops spectacular views of the river and city,” he continued. “It is also visible on the skyline, marking the hotel as a new, exciting destination in South Brisbane.”
View gallery
Architecturally, the proposal’s facade is inspired by the monolithic, concrete-formed Queensland Art Gallery by Robin Gibson and the city’s “timber and tin” cottages. Articulated in two long, slender volumes, the proposed form is enveloped in an “open grid composed of angular, expressed concrete structure.” Within this framework, a series of lightweight, terracotta screens are designed to soften the concrete expression.
Le Sueur noted that “the hotel’s architecture draws directly from the precinct. Its materiality is inspired by Brisbane Tuff, a local volcanic rock found uniquely on Brisbane’s cliffs and in some of Brisbane’s oldest buildings.”
Taking cues from the postmodernist Art Gallery, “the rectilinear façade and articulated massing make for a striking expression,” Le Sueur said. “Landscape is also key; it anchors the ground floor and rooftop, and spills over the building’s planters and balconies.”
Bates Smart has designed the project according to Brisbane City Council’s Buildings That Breathe guidelines, with rooftop solar and rainwater harvesting.
The advertised application can be viewed online and is open for public comment until 7 May. More