Ibis Hotel Facade Graphic

ibis hotel sydney airport · completed 2016

Accor Hotels was seeking to transform the repetitive facade of their ibis Airport hotel via a paint scheme only. Trompe l’oeil techniques and parametric design processes have been used to modulate and optically affect the planar surface. The result is a dynamic graphic activating this prominent position close to Sydney’s domestic airport.

Parametric software allows for a rule based system to be established, so that output may be both visually complex and iterative in nature. Studies in undulating wave forms were applied to extruded rectilinear forms in the digital model. These fictitious additions to the building’s facade were lit to generated shadows.

Three shades of red fill the shadows to create the graphic and further emphasis the illusions of depth and movement. To aid the abseiling painting team of 12, documentation aligned the scheme to joints and reglets of the existing precast concrete panels.

Stukel Stone aims to bring parametric design increasingly into the practice to complement more traditional modes of design.