Advanced composites material ShapeShell FR was used to completely turn a traditional building facade on its head, creating new manufacturing and construction challenges for the builder.

Designed by ARM (Ashton Raggatt McDougall) and built by LU Simon, the Orbis building in South Melbourne, Victoria, Australia features a ‘funky’ facade that projects into and out from the building structure, working with both negative and positive spaces.

The very nature of the design required the material to be both lightweight and immensely strong.

Achieved using the extreme flexibility of the ShapeShell FR material, the facade presents an extraordinarily dramatic deconstructed face to the neighbourhood.