Shortlisted as a finalist for the Auckland tower competition, Australian practice Elenberg Fraser proposes a new landmark high-rise for the city of New Zealand, an abundant forest with a cascading waterfall and a smoldering volcano gazing into the cosmos. 65 federal street project offers a return to a visceral relationship with Auckland’s natural landscape.
At the heart of Elenberg Fraser’s forest is a well, where the rushing water cascades from above and crashes into an underground grotto below. The tower reflects Auckland’s dramatic location atop 48 volcanoes — it starts almost 25 meters above the ground and rises through hotel and apartments to almost 210 metres. The architecture is driven by the desire for each room to have a huge curved glass bay window so that occupants can sit directly into the view lines of the urban geography.
Tighter bubbles for the hotel rooms transit into broader bays for the apartments as the deep pewter-colored glass pours like a liquid volcanic surface. At the top of the building sits a destination restaurant dedicated to the provenance of its materials. A cylindrical telescopic lift rises from this floor to the rooftop which holds a spiral format heated ozone pool, steaming in the cool evening air. Poolside lounges allow visitors and residents to sit amid the stars of the night sky and intimately consider the cosmos and our collective future.
The apartments at 65-71 federal street are a dramatic break from the past. A personalized direct lifting service takes residents directly into their homes without entry corridors with strangers or keys, making every apartment a penthouse with its own lift.
