Alkira House, Art Deco office building in Melbourne, Australia

Alkira House is a six-storey reinforced concrete office building at 18 Queen Street, designed by James Wardrop in 1937. Its facade is clad in green terracotta tiles, with a large vertical glass-brick panel running from the second to the sixth floor to light the interior. The glass bricks were the first used externally in Australia.

The site at 18 Queen Street held a three-storey stone store and later a two-storey office before Alkira House was built in 1937 as an investment for owners Annie and Harold Cohen, with Swanson Bros as builders. Architect James Wardrop, also involved in the Shrine of Remembrance, gave it Australia's first external glass brick facade.

The building embodies the Jazz Moderne style of the 1930s through its bold use of ceramic panels and glass elements on the facade. This architectural language conveyed modernity and progress to visitors and workers in Melbourne at that time.

The building sits on a busy street in central Melbourne and is easy to view and photograph from the sidewalk. The facade is best appreciated during daylight hours when natural light highlights the ceramic tiles and the central glass panel in striking detail.

The site at 18 Queen Street held a three-storey stone store and later a two-storey office before Alkira House was built in 1937 for owners Annie and Harold Cohen, with Swanson Bros as builders. Wardrop designed the nearby United Kingdom Hotel two years later.