New Melbourne hotel honours suburb's industrial past

A new boutique hotel with an industrial-inspired exterior wrapped in weathered steel has opened in Fitzroy, Melbourne.

The sturdy, stacked structure - designed by architecture firm Woods Bagot in collaboration with Hecker Guthrie for interiors - houses the StandardX, an international hotel chain.

The eight-storey building accommodates 125 suites, a rooftop restaurant and bar for hotel guests, a second restaurant, a lobby, an elevated loft with a fireplace, a retail outlet, several common areas, and a bodega.

Its robust exterior of Corten steel was intended to pay homage to Fitzroy's industrial history as Melbourne's oldest suburb. Rather than adopting a sleek and polished facade, the building references the gritty, unrefined character and urban texture of its location.

Woods Bagot's principal, Peter Miglis, and project leader, Robert Rosamilia, said the building reads like it belongs.

"The building rapidly assumes a distinctly local patina that speaks to Fitzroy's convergence of industrial heritage and contemporary artistic sensibility," said Rosamilia. "It's a building that's entirely of its place," he added.

Miglis reiterated those sentiments, mentioning that the hotel was created to cater to the experiential traveller who desires to "immerse themselves in the rhythm and pulse of place."