McBride Charles Ryan

'The Quays' is a mixed-use and apartment development by MAB Corporation in the NewQuay precinct of Melbourne's Docklands. Its sinuous form offers a sensual counterpoint to the series of sentinel towers that currently line the waters' edge. Located on a prominent intersection, 'The Quays' provides a major new frontage and potentially new perception of the Docklands. In addition to punctuating this significant corner with a new local landmark, the towers provide a figurehead to the series of existing towers. Architecturally, the form making is composed of the curvilinear forms of the podium that create, help define and give legibility to the adjacent urban spaces and variety of public spaces to its perimeter. At its Harbour Esplanade frontage, the towers extrude from this podium to differing heights. Overlaying this undulating geometry are smaller-scaled three dimensional 'pixellated' extractions either located at the lowest and highest levels of the towers and at the podium where the public can appreciate their more intricate detail. These rectilinear exceptions drive the direction of the permeable routes through the podium preventing a sense of a monolithic impediment to movement through the precinct. Housing over 600 apartments with accompanying facilities such as a gym, a swimming pool, spa and residents lounge, the larger development includes serviced apartments, a recreation deck and multiple retail outlets to establish a mixed-use development that will contribute to closing the gap between the Docklands and the city.