The architects behind Federation Square have won a 100 million contract to build a project in Beijing's central business district.
The design by Melbourne based company Lab Architecture Studio was chosen by developer Soho China after Lab entered an international competition.
Co-directors Peter Davidson and Don Bates, who were called inexperienced when they were chosen to design Federation Square, say their first foray into public architecture has been applauded overseas and had helped them to win the Soho China competition.
Attacked by architectural historians, industry critics and even celebrity Barry Humphries, who called it obsolete before it was finished, Federation Square has won many design awards including the Walter Burley Griffin Award for urban design.
After announcing his new project, Mr Davidson flew to Beljing yesterday, where Lab has set up its third office since the company was founded in London in 1994, The 170,000-square-metre residential, retail and office development will consist of a low-rise commercial galleria and two towers-one for office space and the other for office space and the other for residential and studio space. Construction is due to begin in November and finish early in 2006.
"Federation Square From beginning to end was six years, it was like a marathon, so it's nice to be running shorter distances, But the speed(of this project) can also be challenging," Mr Davidson said.
"It's a culture where retail is emerging as an activity, they(the Chinese) haven't had 100 years of shopping, but things are evolving very quickly in Beijing."
He said the gap between finishing federation Square and the Beijing project deal was longer than expected but Lab was keen to apply lessons learnt in Melbourne on new projects.
Since winning the Beijing competition Lab has also been contracted to design buildings in Melbourne's Chinese sister-city Tianjin and a government building in Qingdao.
State and Regional Development and Innovation Minister John Brumby congratulated Lab, saying China was a key trading partner for Victoria "Work being won overseas is a great credit to them and shows the potential for Victoria an Australia in terms of Exports in innovation and design," he said.
