Room Service

Melbourne’s United Places is a new concept in accommodation where conventional hotel norms are eschewed in favour of a more personalised approach.

- Carli Philips

Sixty years ago, Queen Elizabeth II bestowed the ‘Royal’ prefix on Melbourne’s Botanic Gardens. Treasured by Victorians, its stately serenity is a quilt of lush landscaping, running tracks, fountains and plants on the south bank of the Yarra River. And United Places is one of the few that can call this coveted location its backyard.

Overlooking the 36-hectare parkland, this new 12-room ‘home-hotel’ combines the best of both worlds; the comfort of personal space with the indulgence of being waited on. The entrance is unassuming, a dark and moody corridor in an elemental palette of black metal, bronze screening and raw concrete with a specially made, motion-driven kinetic sculpture by artist Laura Woodward hanging from a central oculus. “It’s all very Melbourne,” says director of architecture at Carr Design Group, Chris McCue. “Like a city laneway.”