Open State: Melbourne Central

The historic Coops Shot Tower designed by Walter Coop was an ammunitions facility, built in1889. Today, the tower is one of only three 19th century shot towers remaining in Australia. It stands proudly inits original place, protected by a modern, magnificent glass cone, designed in the 1980s by Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa. This feature floods Melbourne Central retail centre with natural light, and is also one of the city’s most recognisable landmarks. Lo-cal historian Dale Campisi will lead visitors around Melbourne Central’s hidden nooks, rare-ly-seen vantage points, secret rooftops and share some intriguing tales of Melbourne’s architectural history.

Open State is part of the Melbourne Design Week, an annual design program linking creativity with business and community. Each year the program will explore the value of good design in a ten-day, city-wide celebration offering talks by leading designers, tours, workshops and industry events at NGV and partner venues throughout Melbourne. The theme for 2017 is Design Values. It asks: what does design value and how do we value design? Find out more here.

Open State is presented by Open House Melbourne on behalf of Creative Victoria and NGV for Melbourne Design Week.