The Irving Street Brewery

The renewal of the former Irving Street Brewery was two decades in the making, but like brewing a good beer, the best outcomes take time to ferment. The Irving Street Brewery is part of the $2 billion Central Park precinct, which redeveloped the brownfield site of the former Carlton United Brewery, into a new and vibrant mixed-use neighbourhood and generous public spaces.  

Stage One of the project, completed in 2014 and undertaken for Frasers Property Australia and Sekisui House Australia, involved the development of a precinct-wide tri-generation facility integrated into the Irving Street Brewery Building and the Brewery Yard.  Stage Two of the Brewery Yard, undertaken for the client, IP Generation from 2021 to 2024, provided for the adaptive reuse of the brewery buildings for contemporary commercial, retail and hospitality uses, and conservation and interpretation of the building. This included salvage, restoration and interpretation of remnant large scale industrial brewing equipment. 

We worked in close collaboration with our clients, the project architect Tzannes, building contractors and specialists to guide the design, adaptation, conservation and interpretation of the place every step of the way and across the lifecycle of the project. We led the heritage planning process and engaged with authorities and shaped award winning design outcomes. 

The Irving Street Brewery building is of historic significance as the last surviving industrial building from the original brewery and the only building to maintain its original function, being the maltings. The new trigeneration plant contrasts contemporary and historic industrial aesthetics, creating a striking architectural roof of six curved cooling towers constructed in a custom-designed zinc-mesh. The innovative transformation was recognised with the prestigious Award for New Design in Heritage Contexts at UNESCO’s 2016 Asia-Pacific Heritage Awards. 

Conserving and revitalising the Irving Street Brewery as the jewel in the crown of the Central Park redevelopment, was crucial to the development’s success and sense of place. 

The second stage adapted the building for commercial and retail uses. We were on site with the building contractors, ICON and other specialists throughout the construction works, providing advice on the conservation of the significant building façades. The restored facades showcase contrasting contemporary glass and steel materials against a backdrop of aged brickwork and sandstone, revealing layers of time and celebrating the different palimpsests etched into its structure. 

Urbis Heritage and Creative Teams developed and delivered an Interpretation Strategy for the place, creating unique and high-quality interpretation and spaces that celebrate the building identity and enhance the place experience. This included working with specialists International Conservation Services (ICS) to salvage, conserve, reconstruct and interpret remnant industrial equipment including two large coal hoppers suspended above the former Boiler Room, and reconstructed plant from the former maltings and other equipment. 

This also included developing a suite of signage, display of archaeological finds and working with Junior Major, developing digital interpretation. The experience synchronises a mobile web app with a large-format projection. Visitors can scan a QR code to explore these memories, projecting the stories and voices from the site’s past across the old Brewery walls.