Elenberg Fraser's staggering myth-inspired infinite lobby for Melbourne apartments

According to their website, for Melbourne studio Elenberg Fraser, “architecture is what happens when we are faced with an impossible problem.” And it certainly seems they’re not content with taking the easy way out, as their jaw-dropping 33 Mackenzie Street apartment block testifies. They describe it as “a vertical village that follows a story of ascendance and transcendence…inspired by the ancient myths of the angel Metatron” while the lobby space takes its visual cues from the story of Pandora’s Box, where “inifnite mirrors create rage sensation of a body suspended in space.” I’t’s not necessarily somewhere I’d choose to live – facing up to metaphysics and myths every time I got him could prove tiring after a few weeks – but there’s no denying this is an extraordinary, immersive project which combines technical skill with some mind-boggling, if unusual ideas.