Woods Bagot took an unusual brief and turned it into a revolutionary build for Fitzroy hotel StandardX

You may have heard of The Standard in West Hollywood, which opened in 1999 with a huge celebrity following and investment from the likes of Cameron Diaz and Leonardo DiCaprio. Later, the trendy hotel's Los Angeles outpost was featured in Sex and the City. These days, The Standard is an international boutique hotel chain for holiday-goers after something more individualistic with a touch of eccentricity to enhance their holiday experience.

During 2023, a most opportune commercial space in the free-spirited Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy cropped up, and Standard International had found a new home for its younger, more soulful, community-driven space – StandardX. This budding new concept was envisaged by the esteemed global architecture studio Woods Bagot, who, alongside local property developers Dealcorp, worked on a brief designed to serve the Fitzroy community's rising demand for short-stay accommodation breaks. The brief? "We wanted the materiality to appear endemic to its local context and speak to the light-industrial heritage of the area," says Woods Bagot Architect Robert Rosamilia. 

StandardX is a thoughtfully constructed space, built in the same vein as the budding Airbnb era – which the Melbourne community has come to prefer over the sorts of an international hotel chain. Fitzroy is famous for its hidden live music venues, street art laneways, corner pubs and charming inner-city terrace houses. Weekend markets are brimming with locals and tourists who appreciate the creative works of local artisans, bakers and restaurateurs. So what better locale for a building that, in the words of Laurelle Kobritz of Dealcorp, "positively contributes to the local identity, while enhanced public realm helps to connect with Brunswick Street, Rose Street Markets, and surrounding restaurants, boutiques and independent galleries".  

In the dynamic cocoon of Fitzroy, an opportunity arose for a distinctive take on The Standard. Touted as ‘intuitive hospitality without the pretension’, it brings forth an invigorated perspective on luxury. Melbourne sets the stage for this global rollout, offering an eight-storey, 125-room playground with all the bells and whistles – think rooftop terrace with incredible cityscape views –  echoing the original hotel's prestige, yet expressed in a softer tone. 

Guests can look forward to a laid-back oasis designed for the pulse of the ‘rough-and-ready’ traveller, a place where refinement sheds its formality to embrace the essence of Fitzroy's rebellious appeal. "It's targeting the short-stay, experiential traveller who seeks to immerse themselves in the culture and rhythm of one of Melbourne's most iconic suburbs," says Woods Bagot Principal Pete Miglis.

In Fitzroy's relaxed streets, the new build speaks volumes in that beautifully understated Melbournian way. Its sturdy, stacked form and weathering steel facade echo the area's industrial roots, a nod to the quintessentially Australian pubs that are silent witnesses to the suburb’s colourful past. The Corten steel exterior – designed to deliberately build up a rust-coloured texture – alludes to the idea that the building has always existed in this space, steeped in the fabric of yesteryear. Much like the punched windows that mirror the surrounding buildings, StandardX is more than just a temporary brick-and-mortar home – it's a timeless addition to Melbourne's oldest inner-city suburb. "The building rapidly assumes a distinctly local patina that speaks to Fitzroy's convergence of industrial heritage and contemporary artistic sensibility," recalls Rosamilia.

The interior of the unorthodox hotel was guided by Cremorne-based multidisciplinary design studio Hecker Guthrie in collaboration with Standard International's design team. The brief specified ‘soft industrialism, youthful eclecticism with a sophisticated palette of materials’ and draws on the locale's industrial beginnings. StandardX features over-scaled monolithic beams cross-cutting spaces with a central column displaying an impressive macrame artwork by local weaver Sarah Smalltown. 

As with any grand-scale architectural feat, StandardX comes with its own set of unique challenges. In a predominantly residential neighbourhood, it's still a commercial hospitality venue, after all. Constraints around building height and noise control meant Woods Bagot had to devise creative solutions to squeeze this sizable project into an urban pocket of land. The site itself is relatively small for a hotel of this magnitude and, as with all accommodation venues, required agile thinking in order to fit all the usual hotel amenities. 

Hence, this iteration of The Standard's usual concept trades large open areas for a more intimate look at hotel living, more ‘living like a local’ and a place where Fitzroy's iconic eateries and live music haunts become a guest's extended living room. The communal areas – including retail spaces, bustling lobbies and rooftop zones – offer the potential for chance encounters and shared moments, weaving guests into the vibrant fabric of this Melbourne scene. "It's a building that's entirely of its place," recounts Rosamilia.