Venice Biennale
Melbourne University Innovation Precinct, Student Accommodation
A1 Panel
A2 Panels
A4 Panels
Carlton Connect Initiative Student Accommodation University of Melbourne Building Area
16,000m2
Location
Carlton Melbourne, Australia
Completion
2020
This project provides living accommodation for 528 of the University’s postgraduate students, visiting academics and undergraduates. The plan form of the building inserts as a puzzle piece, completing the fourth quarter of a masterplan designated as the knowledge, learning and teaching hub for advanced engineering, fab-lab and a technology museum. Formally, the design explores the ecosystem of major teaching and research across science and culture, enabling academic and industry partnering and entrepreneurship through a new horizontal and vertical terrain of collaboration, fostering a mix of exchange, interaction or discreet focus. A court organises the urban form of the site, to connect the interior with the wider Carlton precinct. A vertical circulation spine connects two accommodation wings, linking living, learning, social, creative and recreational spaces throughout the building to the rooftop.
STUDENT EXPERIENCE 2 MINS
ROOF TERRACE
LANDSCAPED ‘BACK YARD’ BBQ / BEER GARDEN / SPORTS PARK
AERIAL VIEWS OF THE CITY
2 MINS
MY STUDIO
STUDY
PRIVATE STUDY ‘SAFE HAVEN’
4 MINS
LIVING ROOM
CASUAL GATHERING / COMMUNAL DINNING / INFORMAL STUDY SPACES
5 MINS
INTIMATE URBAN EXPERIENCE STREET FURNITURE
FOYER + PASTORAL CARE / ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES
5 MINS
‘HIDDEN GEM’ CAFE
MY ADDRESS MY STREET DOOR MY LETTER BOX
6 MINS
CAFE CAFE
8 MINS
10 MINS
FOOD / RETAIL ENTERTAINMENT
LIBRARIES / UNIVERSITIES
6 MINS 8 MINS
LOCAL SHOPS
MY BIKE MY BUILDING
MY STREET
MY CITY
BIKE PATHS
CINEMA / GAME ROOM / ‘HANG-OUT’ NOOKS / SOCIAL ACTIVITY
BIKE PATHS
LOUNGE
MELBOURNE HODDLE GRID BOULEVARD
3 MINSTERRACE LANDSCAPED VIEWS OUTDOOR LOUNGE
VISUAL CONNECTIVITY
3 MINS
MELBOURNE LANEWAY
CO-WORKING / CREATIVE HOT-SPOT
CARLTON GARDENS
The context for living expression derives from Carlton’s commercial and retail-strip street - a community hive characteristic of the inner Melbourne suburbs. This urban street is conceptually adopted and rotated vertically through the building, to create visual and functional porosity, exposing the living, learning, and social life within. In this way the building expresses the creative collision of people and ideas.
ER
P DIN O T F O O
SUN ROO M
R DINER
FITNESS STUDIO
GYM
CINEMA
THE LOUNGE
THE BACKYARD
RB HE DEN R GA
NOOK VIDEO GAMES
GAMES
LOUNGE
THE STUDY
TECH LAB
COLAB PRIVATE PODS
LIBRARY
READING ROOM
THE COMMONS
BOARD GAMES
DAY LOUNGE OM
G RO
LIVIN
‘CAFE’
MULTI P
URPOSE
RACE
TER
A PLAZ
FOYER
ROOM
URB A LOU N NGE
URBAN
LOUNG
E
Careful consideration is given to the apartment mix, and the variety and dispersal of communal spaces in creating a recognisable and stimulating city home.
These projects represent a five-year interval, 2015-2020, within a 34-year practice spectrum. What is interesting for us is the lens of the present—the abundance of vast and emerging local and global themes that are generating discussion and evolutionary approaches to design. The possibilities to champion an expansive practice, encompassing a range of hybrid typologies across art, civic infrastructure, urban design and incorporating new forms of living and working environments are enabled through a robust engagement in the cross-pollination and active sharing of knowledge beyond typological and sector boundaries as well as leading the research and testing of evolving ideas and combinations. These projects present the state of a particular place and design processes, but also illuminate new directions and speculations that come from meaningful collaborations and critical reflection: Freespace.