BRISBANE – Melbourne-based Studio 505 has revamped the exterior of a Brisbane shopping centre, creating a complex study of the natural world.

With a brief to create a 4000-sq-m façade that reflects the shopping mall’s name – Wintergarden – the designers appropriately looked to a forest for inspiration. The resulting design ‘communicates the rich diversity of life’ and is simultaneously an abstract and ambiguous pattern, yet a coherent image.

On approach visitors see vegetation that runs alongside the building, making it seem as though they are looking into a forest. While the compilation at first looks like a random juxtaposition of materials, on closer inspection it becomes evident that aspects are readable, like giant butterflies.

Built-in lighting can change colours omitted from the façade, making it more appropriate for the various seasons as they change. As the sun moves throughout the day, so too do patterns, highlights and shadows created by the interplay of panels and layers.

Photos courtesy of John Gollings and studio505

studio505.com.au