Founded in 1999, Kennedy Nolan has built a reputation for bold, sustainable and design-driven architecture. Led by Patrick Kennedy and Rachel Nolan, the practice spans from residential projects to larger-scale commercial, educational, and public spaces — always with a focus on innovation, sustainability, and connection to place.
LEIF partner venue, Melbourne Place is a rare contemporary example of complete design, where both the building and the interiors are designed by Kennedy Nolan. Below, Principal and Founding Partner, Patrick Kennedy joins us to discuss the inspiration and process of the design.
Photography by Derek Swalwell, Sean Fennessy, Kate Shanasy.
"At Melbourne Place, our first impulse was to make a building in the city which would be substantial and textural and real and unmistakably home-grown, particularly as a response to the anonymous glass-sheathed towers which have dominated in recent years."
Can you share more about your background and what led you to architecture?
Both Rachel and I grew up in regional Australia (Wodonga and Albury) and met at Newman college, a residential college at Melbourne University designed by Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahoney Griffin. Certainly the architecture of Newman was a great inspiration for both of us, and as our friendship developed we discovered a shared design sensibility based around the Australian modernism of the 1970s and a love of gardens. We found we were both drawn to the way architecture could make you feel things and we had a shared enthusiasm for things we couldn’t see in design at that time; colour, pattern and texture. Ultimately we just wanted to try some of these things out, which led us to start our practice in 1999.
What are the core elements of your practice — both in philosophy and process?
We see the practice of Architecture quite holistically. A vital part is having an approach to design and for us that is about trying to engage with each project from first principles and to combine our own imagination with inspiration from the wider world to make something relevant and hopefully fresh.
We are also interested in how our practice is more than the work of being an Architect – we aspire to make a good workplace and we want to be good citizens. Amongst many other things, this requires us to be involved in addressing climate change and contributing positively to repairing the relationship with Australia’s traditional owners, acknowledge their ownership of land and learn from their close connection to Country. We also want to have fun.
What inspired your vision for Melbourne Place and influenced your design decisions?
There are so many things that inspire us at Kennedy Nolan, and while there is definitely a shared sensibility in our practice, we are drawing on the imaginations of our whole team.
We wanted to make a building which would be playful and have a personality, and early on we christened it the “Llama”, a name which has stuck and which has references scattered throughout the building. Amongst the other ideas that drove us, we wanted to use colour as a way to create a mood and evoke emotion and memory and we were interested in giving the guestrooms a domestic quality, to import some of the comfort of a beautiful home.
What emotions do you hope visitors feel when they experience Melbourne Place?
We want guests to have the best kind of hotel experience: to feel like it’s a treat, to feel pampered, to feel at the centre of an exciting place surrounded by interesting people who are all having fun! To do this there should be a sense of excitement and even theatre. But it is also a grown-up hotel so it needs to feel like a retreat from the city, a well appointed haven and importantly it should have a level of domestic comfort. What this means is that while intense colour and texture and dramatic lighting and art define the visual experience, we are also focussed on making sure that the guestrooms are simple to use, that there is a place for everything, that you can open a shutter for fresh air, that the furniture is comfortable, that the shower is big and that the bathmat stays dry.
How does the use of colour enhance the overall atmosphere of the property?
In general people respond emotionally to colour, colours stay in people’s memories and remind them of events and places. But colour is tricky too, most people are reluctant to use it in their own spaces for fear that they will get it wrong or grow tired of it. Which is why a hotel is the perfect place for colour – it is a setting for making memories – travel, weddings, special occasions, you name it, but you don’t have to live with it for longer than your stay. Our practice has worked intensively and seriously on understanding how to use colour over 25 years and we have made use of this collective knowledge at Melbourne Place where colour is everywhere and where the intensity and curation of colour is designed to heighten emotion and imprint on memory.
Now that Melbourne Place is complete, do you have a favourite space within it?
I have so many favourite spaces but two stick out. The first is the magenta private dining room which feels like the perfect setting for a special occasion and is a tribute to other interiors precious to our practice. The other space is in the restaurant Mid Air, behind the giant twin eyes which look out over Melbourne – it feels like a unique space in Melbourne, it’s big and dramatic and feels like it will host generations of significant moments.
1. What are you currently reading/listening to?
I have just finished reading Cold Enough for Snow by Jessica Au – superb, and listening to Angela Hewitt’s Bach, inspired by her recent tour of Australia.
2. What colour are you currently drawn to and why?
Changes all the time, but feeling very drawn to the magenta of the Melbourne Place private dining room.
3. What gets you out of bed every morning?
I love it when the magpies are singing.
4. Items you just can't live without?
Well, I do like things but I like to think I don’t need them to live.
5. What would be your dream design project?
Would love to do a church because of the challenge of making a building that responds to what is essentially a mystery.
