St. Collins Lane is a high-end retail precinct in Melbourne’s CBD. It comprises four floors of luxury retail and dining, both formal and casual.
Melbourne is famously characterised by laneways and elegant 19th-century shopping arcades. Our St. Collins Lane design concept is a contemporary incarnation of the latter.
Our work involved replacing the entire interior of the existing Australia on Collins shopping centre. The old centre was enclosed and hermetic with very poor pedestrian circulation. The original floor levels through the site did not allow a clear path from one street frontage through to another.
We removed the old interior and completely replaced it with four floors of shopping and dining. Several retail spaces have branded architecture for high-end stores. In the spirit of Melbourne’s historic laneways, you can wander straight through from Collins to Little Collins Street.
Our vision for St. Collins Lane is the spirit of la passeggiata, the Italian custom of a stroll through town, meeting friends and unwinding. Maybe there’s an element of French flaneurie. And of just hanging out.
The architecture reflects the different cultures of the two streets it joins. On prestigious Collins Street, there are large-scale vertical columns and bay window shop fronts. Boutique-feel Little Collins Street has a continuous glazed canopy and a generous cantilevered balcony with planting. Large-format stores with street frontage accommodate international brands including Tag Heuer, Coach and Reiss.
Besides a high-end retail centre, St. Collins Lane is a social public space. Instead of food courts, which simply fuel you to keep shopping, the St. Collins Lane eateries are places to meet friends, linger, maybe work from home. It is a destination for a 21st-century Melbourne CBD.