Since being founded in 1851 at the beginning of the Victoria Gold Rush, Carlton has become a hub for industry, education and diversity in Melbourne.

As you move along Victoria Street, it is hard to ignore the remnants of the early manufacturing industry that once occupied the South Carlton area. A district known for invention and innovation, the iconic Carlton Brewery site still houses its 21 concrete malt store tanks which were a technical advancement for its time. In 1880, the Royal Exhibition Building began a long standing tradition of putting the city on display - the Melbourne International Exhibition aimed to showcase commerce and industry within Victoria, along with promoting science, art and education.

At the beginning of the 19th century, Carlton was home to mostly artisans, workmen and small industry. At present, due to its close proximity to various educational institutions, Carlton is home to one of the highest concentrations of university students in Australia, with a 2016 census stating 61.8% of Carlton residents were attending an education institution.

The area is noted for its diverse population that has been the home in earlier days of Jewish and Italian immigrants. In the 2016 Census, there were 18,535 people in Carlton. 27.3% of people were born in Australia. The most common countries of birth were China 22.6%, Malaysia 6.4%, Indonesia 3.1%, India 2.6% and Singapore 2.3%.

Newer developments along Cardigan Street have been quite sympathetic to the surrounding streetscape, with larger developments facades being offset from the front boundary. A row of terrace houses, which are common to the Carlton area, and make up the language of the streetscape. The streets are a hard environment, you are surrounded by bricks walls, bluestone laneways, apart from a few council trees, there is no greenery in the area, which reflects its uninhabited industrial past. A brief encounter of greenery can be seen in a laneway off Orr Street, where a small herb garden brightens the environment and brings much needed colour in the dark and hard laneways.

The RMIT Carlton precinct combines a mixture of warehouses and terraces, with a range of history from 1920s to perhaps 1980s buildings. The block is bookended by two quite distinct modernist brick buildings, that reference the industrial heritage of the site.

Brick here, brick there, brick everywhere - In all different colours and coursing. It goes to show how favoured the humble brick was as a building material in the late victorian era, to the 1920’s art deco style warehouses with stepped brick parapets, and onwards to the modernist red brick buildings that bookend the precinct.

The cobble bluestone laneways, reflect an ongoing trend throughout the Melbourne landscape - Irregular bluestone cobblestone, although they provide a sense of character and provide a sense of history, their safety and amenity could be questioned. Resulting in Melbourne council “rejuvenating” laneways by ripping out the stones, cutting them flat, and then relaying them.

1 Brick / 2 Weathered Brickwork / 3 Red Brick / 4 Glass Blocks / 5 Timber Paneling Red / 6 Pink Polycarbonate / 7 Downpipe Painted / 8 Obscured Textured Glass / 9 Long Tiles / 10 Painted Brickwork / 11 Rusted Window Shutter / 12 Green Metal Mesh / 13 Exposed Formwork Concrete / 14 Cast In Situ Concrete / 15 Textured Concrete / 16 Textured Painted Concrete / 17 Concrete Exposed Aggregate / 18 Brushed Steelwork / 19 Weatherboard Timber / 20 Corrugated and Perforated Aluminium / 21 Exposed Aggregate Paving / 22 Bluestone Cobblestone / 23 Concrete Cast Painted Black

EDUCATION
01 RMIT University
02 Melbourne University

HISTORIC
03 Trades Hall
04 Royal Exhibition Building
05 Old Melbourne Gaol
06 State Library of Victoria

PUBLIC SPACES
07 Carlton Gardens
08 Lincoln Square
09 Argyle Square
10 Alumni Courtyard

FITNESS
11 Melbourne City Baths
12 Hardrock Climbing
13 Zap Fitness

FOOD + BEVERAGE
14 Poolhouse Coffee
15 Cardigan Street Cafes
16 Lygon Precinct
17 John Curtin Hotel
18 The Lincoln Hotel
19 Queensberry Hotel

MASS TRANSIT
20 State Library Station (Opens 2026)
21 Melbourne Central Station

PARKING
22 GreenCo Parking
23 Cardigan House Parking
24 Regal Parking
25 Wilson Parking
26 Franklin Street Parking
27 RMIT Bike Parking

This new building in the development will have a strong focus on grids. This comes from the grids and patterns that can be found within the local Melbourne CBD’s map. However it will not just be taken as level and square, due to the natural skew of Melbourne’s geographical map. Thus, relevant reference has been made to the angled Rubix Cube, showing that even when it may not appear conventional, grids need not be applied in a regular and level square arrangement. The building its self will also make a reference through its form to both Jenga Towers and matchstick cubes. Singular long elements will give rise to the creation of a form clad in a grid like exterior. This building’s concept will be strongly rooted with much of the historical industrial architecture of Carlton. Hereby imbedding itself within many of the old brick warehouses that can be found in the local area, including some locations which currently exist in the precinct site.

This new building in the development has a strong focus on grids. This comes from the grids and patterns that can be found within the local Melbourne CBD’s map. However it will not just be taken as level and square, due to the natural skew of Melbourne’s geographical map. Thus, relevant reference has been made to the angled Rubix Cube, showing that even when it may not appear conventional, grids need not be applied in a regular and level square arrangement. The building its self makes reference through its form to both Jenga Towers and matchstick cubes. Singular long elements give rise to the creation of a form clad in a grid like exterior. This building’s concept is strongly rooted with much of the historical industrial architecture of Carlton. Hereby embedding itself within many of the old brick warehouses that are found in the local area, including some locations which exist in the precinct site.

Local RMIT:

RMIT has own much of the blocks in the direct vicinity, slowly progressing to envelope the North of the CBD as their own dedicated RMIT Campus. The Innovation District will fit neatly in to this.

Local PTV:

The proposal is located within short walking distance from tram stops on Swanston Street as well as the proposed and under construction CBD North train station. This makes the chosen location ideal to contribute to the ever present student housing needs.

Location:
Site of RMIT building 71
42-48 Cardigan St, Carlton VIC 3053

Development Lot:
Lot. 1.01
Phase 1, Building 1

Building Scale:
8 Levels Above Around (Inc. Roof Terrace)
1 Level Below Ground (Double Height)