Street art has gone mainstream and the idea of incorporating art into the design of a building has now happened thanks to the collaborative efforts of architects KUD (Kavellaris Urban Design) and artist Samantha Everton. The result is the surreal 2 Girls Building located in Abbottsford, Victoria; a suburb of Melbourne, Australia.

The image used on 2 Girls Building is from Samantha’s fantasy series called “Vintage Dolls” and this particular photo art is called Masqeuerade.

It is this fusion of art, photography and architecture that makes 2 Girls Building so fascinating. The architecture becomes photography that is art while the art is photography that becomes architecture.

The green flocked wallpaper in the original artwork has been recreated in concrete.

The lamp in the original art has been recreated as an outdoor light fixture complete with gigantic lampshade.

The outdoor light is made with a steel tube that extends along a vertical edge of the natural concrete wall, stopping short one floor up from the sidewalk.

Not only did they reference the wallpaper on the outside of the building but they also recreated it for the walls of the main floor interior, which just so happens to also feature a reproduction of the actual artwork. So Surreal, so smart.

Around the corner from the entry hall, the wallpaper is replaced with white gallery walls and is used to showcase revolving art shows.

The gallery hallways separate offices, warehouse spaces and the residential living quarters upstairs.

Within the gallery space small courtyards showcase faux trees rising up from white pebbles.

The bold colours showcased on the manmade trees break up the stark white walls of the gallery.

Next to the main entrance, around the corner from the wallpapered hall, is a stairwell that leads up to the living quarters.

Inside the apartments the living quarters have outdoor balconies that create the voids on the artsy façade.

The apartments are designed to include large swathes of uninterrupted wall space so the residents can create their own gallery walls.

Stairwells inside the apartments lead to a roof top deck where artistic metal panels continue the theme of unique art works.

KUD
Samantha Everton
Photography by Peter Clarke

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