Lisa-Maree Carrigan Director
Lisa-Maree is Director of Architecture & Urban Design globally at GroupGSA. She leads engagement of teams and clients through design collaboration and strategic direction
Sydney’s first Moxy Hotel, by Marriott International is shaking up the airport hotel market
With a fun and energetic touch-down for the “young at heart” and professional traveller the 301-key lifestyle hotel is making its mark at Sydney Airport with a dynamic alternative to the typical hotel experience. GroupGSA was engaged by Sydney-based construction company Roberts Co (previously Roberts Pizzarotti) to lead the architecture, executive interior design, landscaping, graphics and wayfinding for the $140 million development. The project was first initiated in 2018 when Marriott partnered with RF Corval and KS Hotels & Resorts to launch the first Moxy Hotel in Sydney. Topping 13-storeys on Baxter Rd at Mascot, Moxy Sydney Airport is located on a former cark park site, directly alongside from the domestic and international terminals.
The Team:
Designed around maximising connection to place and servicing the “urban nomad” and “innovative professional”, the hotel development focuses on strong design carried out cohesively to the smallest details. Links to the history of Mascot and contextual reflections underpin this unique hotel.
Moxy Sydney Airport is so strongly different in its façade than anything done before it. It marks a new wave in lifestyle hotels in Australia of consolidated hotel footprints with highly designed and well-equipped amenities, designed explicitly for a younger and professional clientele.
The hotel’s interior and exterior finishes speak explicitly to Sydney, fusing the iconic Moxy brand DNA with the granularity and history of the Botany area. Rooms are compact, highly resolved, and encourage guests to engage in the social spaces.
There’s a striking contrast between the compact, private rooms and buzzy social spaces, which operate day-to-night. It’s smart, stylish and fun with very different materiality you’d expect to find at a typical airport hotel.
Check-in is at the bar, where guests collect their room key and complimentary signature cocktail on arrival. There’s a vibrancy in the key cohort they’re anticipating.
Artist Elliott Routledge, who goes by the street name ‘Numskull’, was commissioned by the architects to develop a large totem-style sculpture and two major public artworks. This includes a kaleidoscope deep blue and white pattern wrap to the façade, which makes a strong playful expression and urban statement – and one that drives the overall personality of the hotel.
Inside, the landscape seeps into the foyer space, blurring the edge between internal and external. There’s a very deliberate, heavy greening to the communal areas, which are flooded with natural light. Moxy’s bold and playful attitude is met by edgy, industrial-chic social spaces, which include 24/7 dining options, a gym and flexible co-working and meeting breakouts.
A coffee outlet with an operable ‘garage’ style glass door opens out onto the street, offering cool warehouse vibes.
