Living Edge Learning Portfolio

Learning Portfolio

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“Success is creating inspiring, engaging and differentiated student experiences while providing ‘best in class’ university services.”

Geyer

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To Learn + To Lead Welcome to Living Edge: The Learning Portfolio Living Edge is a firm believer in the importance of investing in the future. Whether this means providing comfortable, healthy environments for learning or inspiring new generations through striking, unique design, Australia’s premier destination for furniture is proud to supply innovative solutions to schools and universities across the nation. Living Edge works closely with clients within the education space to understand their wants and needs and ensure that these are fully and creatively met.

characteristics of the Australian lifestyle and market, Living Edge delivers worldclass products to support the thinkers and doers of tomorrow.

Drawing from years of experience in the fast-paced commercial and residential sectors, Living Edge tackles the education sector with flair and a fresh perspective to deliver furniture that seamlessly merges functionality and style. Equipped with a nuanced understanding of the complexities and

More than just a furniture supplier, Living Edge truly leads by example, blending a commitment to social responsibility with an unwavering forward-facing outlook and genuine passion for bringing the best furniture design to Australian markets.

Valuing authenticity, quality, and innovation, Living Edge’s carefully curated product offering is meticulously selected from the best design around the world. From pieces by local designers to signature items from international design heavyweights, the Living Edge collection values timeless design in all its forms and origins.

Brands For years, design has been the unsung hero of nurturing human potential and development.

Only now are we fully acknowledging that the spaces in which we work leave an indelible mark on our habits, quirks, and capabilities, and in turn shape our ability to perform and develop at our full capacity. Good design is that which fosters a comfortable, inspiring environment allowing us to relax, communicate, and open our minds to new information and ways of doing things. Great design does all this and more, integrating itself into our habits and thought processes so firmly that it’s impossible to imagine life without it.

In light of this, Living Edge celebrates design at all scales, putting together a careful edit of design and furniture that inspires and supports at all levels. From chairs and tables to benches and laptop stands, no need is too small or large, and all are treated as opportunities to make an impact through design.

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A Century Of Excellence For over a century, Herman Miller has remained steadfast in its commitment to authentic design that gives just as much confidence, joy and compassion to its end-users as it does to the environment and the community by which it’s surrounded.

Innovative ways to improve the performance and wellbeing of its users has always been the Herman Miller hallmark – no doubt leading the brand to become synonymous with ‘modernity’ in more aspects than just furniture design.

Throughout the Twentieth Century, Herman Miller collaborated with the legendary designers George Nelson and Charles and Ray Eames, allowing the company to produce pieces that would become classics of industrial design. Since then, Herman Miller has collaborated with leaders in design, including Alexander Girard, Isamu Noguchi, Robert Propst, Bill Stumpf, Don Chadwick, Ayse Birsel, Studio 7.5,

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Yves Béhar, Doug Ball, Scholten & Baijings and many talented others.

Herman Miller is a recognised innovator in contemporary furniture providing solutions to all environments including those of the education, workplace, healthcare, hospitality and residential sectors. A publicly held company headquartered in Zeeland, Michigan, Herman Miller co-ordinates manufacturing facilities, dealers, licensees, and customers in over one-hundred countries.

Marrying pioneering design, practicality and flexibility – the Herman Miller signature – has captured the imagination of designers for years, prompting them to return to the brand time and again to meet all furniture needs for today, and many tomorrows yet to come.

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Useful And Beautiful Stemming from the belief that “form” and “function” need not be mutually discrete, the friendly furniture experts at British brand naughtone has championed “useful beautiful” design as a core tenet for effective collaboration.

For the educational sector, the studio’s findings cannot be overestimated.

Benefitting from the wealth of R+D invested by its parent company, Herman Miller, naughtone sees the popularity of agile workspaces in the commercial sector as a great opportunity to shape the effectiveness of tomorrow’s learning and teaching environments.

People-centric, diversity-optimised and flexibility-focused, naughtone’s comprehensive portfolio understands that adaptiveness is central to futurefriendliness. What’s more, the brand’s Lasso and Hue designs, tailor these philosophies to the exacting needs of the educational sector: offering an exciting reimagination of the classic seat-and-tablet-table arrangement familiar from college, but instead celebrating their functional possibilities for flexibility and co-operation.

Lasso is a quirky and endearing collaborative seating arrangement,

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with a snug stool around which a table ring encircles, leading out and upwards to a well-supported tablet-table. Several configurations – both for single use, and a larger stool with three-seater tables attached – allow for both self-contained working and collaboration with others.

Hue, meanwhile, is an excellent answer to awkward floorplate requirements when a collaboration of two-or-more requires privacy. A C-shape of two seats at either end and a table space emerging between. Hue creates a mini-booth of protected space, and the option of incorporating a higher buffering ledge provides further acoustical privacy.

In line with the sustainability mindset of contemporary educational environments, naughtone produly designs non-toxic products that exceed expectations with SCS Indoor Advantage™, Gold Certificate, and carries FSC®, FISP and ISO14001 certifications.

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Developing Potential Merging simplicity with quality and functionality, HOWE reimagines Bauhaus ideals for the Twenty-First Century.

The Denmark-based brand has a rich, colourful past that is underpinned by a single, central driver: the desire to create functional interior environments that facilitate human activity and growth. This story began in Connecticut in 1928, when Harold Howe made a name by offering “just about any furniture that folded”.

Focusing primarily on tables, Howe crafted furniture that facilitated activity in its many and varied forms, from sewing to dining to playing cards. This understanding of the role of design in facilitating curiosity and activity held massive appeal. Soon, HOWE led the US market in multi-use, space-saving tables, and thus expanded internationally.

Today, HOWE retains at its core a guiding principle of liberating interior spaces from clutter and restrictions, creating the ideal conditions for freedom of thought. Like Howe’s original tables, HOWE furniture is a backdrop to

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dynamism activity, allowing creativity, action, and imagination to unspool in new, uninhibited directions.

Flexibility remains at the heart of HOWE’s design sensibility, uniting a range of adaptable chairs, tables, and workspaces for offices and education facilities. HOWE furniture is designed to enhance interior environments while allowing for spaces to quickly transform for different uses. True to its roots, most HOWE furniture can be folded, stacked, or easily put away to fully maximise the potential of a space. This adaptability lends itself perfectly to the agile workplaces emerging in today’s schools and universities, to engender functional, active learning. Uncompromising in its practicality, HOWE helps deliver multifunctional spaces for the multi-talented learners of today and tomorrow.

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Modernity’s Icon Walter Knoll is seen as the furniture brand of modernity. Starting out as a “leather shop” in Stuttgart in 1865, Walter Knoll has repeatedly made its mark on furniture history, continuing to develop classic pieces and hallmarks of the avant-garde.

To this end, Walter Knoll takes great care and detail not only with the aesthetic design choices it makes, but with the minutiae of materials and how they are handled, only specifying the most expertly tanned leather and investing in the skills of their in-house artisans.

The Australian manufacturing outpost of Walter Knoll, down in Adelaide, has been bringing a piece of European design into the worldly Australian market for almost a decade. Walter Knoll Australia represents one of those genuine lightbulb-moments that not only prove

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it is possible to think globally and act locally, but that in doing so Australia’s commercial, residential and (most importantly) education environments can be at the vanguard of global change.

Walter Knoll Australia is the brand’s local manufacturing outpost that coordinates with speed all facets of design, manufacture, logistics and dispatch for the German brand on our shores.

Understanding the pressures placed on education institutions to innovate, renovate and create at more rapid speeds than heretofore, Walter Knoll is prepared to deliver to this demand within a short timeframe and customise ranges to either branding decisions, climate and user-necessity.

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New Nordic Muuto believe that it’s time for a fresh take on design. At every turn, the brand – whose name is taken from muutos, the Finnish word for ‘new perspective’ – is committed to exploring bold new ideas and providing a platform for emerging design voices. Applying this to all aspects of the educational built environment, the brand carefully explores every element of public spaces and the myriad of learning spaces that contribute to the educational experience.

Muuto’s recognition of the potential of the new lies closely with an honouring of the old. The brand consistantly pays homage to years of rich, distinctive Scandinavian design heritage. Marrying the functionality, craftsmanship, and honest expression of traditional Scandinavian design with contemporary forms and manufacturing, Muuto combines the best of both worlds. The result is a timeless, stylish catalogue of diverse products that celebrates difference and encourages divergent thinking about the role of design in creating positive environments.

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Muuto’s championing of diversity is perfectly aligned with the ongoing paradigm shift in today’s educational spaces, which recognises the presence of multiple distinctive, competing needs.

The same design solution that works for one user may not necessarily perform for another; the same environment that nurtures someone on their journey to realising their full potential may be stifling to someone else. Muuto understands that the best way to balance competing needs is not to address them with a universal solution, but rather to celebrate difference and provide users with choice.

Versatile, customisable, and highly diverse, the Muuto catalogue provides users with unmatched scope to explore their options and find the best possible fit for their wants and needs.

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Pioneering Progress Cofounded in 1995 by architect Philip Mainzer and designer and art director Farah Ebrahimi, e15 is a global consortium of creative talents – fine artists, designers, architects and product innovators – that, together, develops truly original designs and artistic expressions.

Reflecting the brand’s open approval to diverse cultures and disciplines, e15 caters to the full spectrum of interiors needs: including those of the consumer and commercial market specialised for the education sector.

With this comprehensive approach to interiors and user needs, e15 has developed a radical form of ‘new simplicity’ – declaring everything unnecessary that either does not aid user experience, or augment user satisfaction. A true synthesis of form and function, then, e15 has left an indelible mark for itself in the annals of modern design.

Celebrating vital, essential forms, and supreme functionality at every angle, the brand has established a leading reputation for pioneering the simplified and the streamlined in contemporary

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design. Understanding the shifting nature of education environments – not to mention the shifting nature of teaching and learning needs – e15 positions itself confidently at the vanguard of change.

Based in London and operating its manufacturing capacity from Germany, e15 gathers a worldwide network of premium retailers, service delivery experts and flagship showrooms. In the founders’ own words, “e15 stands for consistent, progressive design coupled with high-grade materials and handcrafted production methods.”

To this end, as stakeholders in the education sector become increasingly attuned to the wellbeing, productivity and amenity inherent in design for this market, e15 will continue to shape evolutions in teaching and learning, and the built environments by which they are fostered.

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Future-Proofing The Dutch brand Prooff recognises that workspaces are changing. Technology has not only shaped the ways that we are choosing to work, it has also had an undeniable impact on the spaces in which we work most effectively.

Today’s offices and educational spaces are virtually unrecognisable from those of thirty, twenty, and even ten years ago, as technological advances and attitudinal change has paved the way for agile, flexible environments.

The gridded cubicles and single desks of yesterday have been replaced by open, shared spaces, and the rows of chairs before a classroom blackboard have been scattered in favour of a more multifunctional, adaptive approach to education sector furniture.

Prooff has taken these major changes in stride, embracing the concept of Activity Based Working (ABW) to craft modular, multifunctional furniture solutions that adapt to different users and activities.

This approach has earned them the rightful reputation as one of the most progressive in the international furniture

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industry, informing every aspect of its design practice. Discarding the one-sizefits-all approach to furniture design, Prooff instead focuses on addressing the specific needs of the user community.

Adaptable products respond deftly to shifting attitudes and needs within the education space, and allow multiple and diverse configuration by shifting functional requirements. By reimagining the user as a community and not an individual working in isolation, Prooff refocuses design as a tool for providing communal meeting points and public areas that encourage collaboration and enhance efficiency.

Prooff, in name and nature, provides evidence time and time again of not only the potential for functionality, pragmatism and design to co-exist, but also of design’s ability of design to transform ordinary places into extraordinary ones.

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Understanding Place The brainchild of Sydney-based designer David Caon, CAON is one of the key brands to watch in Australian design.

Caon graduated from the University of South Australia with a Bachelor of Industrial Design before cutting his teeth working with design legends George Sowden and Jerszy Seymour in Milan and fellow Australian wünderkind Marc Newson in Paris.

The international flavour of his formative years as a designer are evident in his brand’s sleek, restrained designs, which combine pragmatism with a strong understanding of this global industry’s emerging innovations.

Spanning everything from homewares and furniture to architecture and aircraft interiors, CAON’s design approach is multi-faceted and boundary pushing.

Clean lines and restrained, impeccably curated material palettes remain the company’s hallmarks, blurring lines between sectors and transitioning effortlessly between work and play.

At the core of CAON’s success is an ability to spark a profound emotional

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connection between people, the items they use and the spaces they inhabit.

Recognising the value of a sense of place, CAON responds to the environment and user for which it designs. This is highly evident in the award winning BLOC: a modular collaborative system highly attuned to the needs of students across primary, secondary and tertiary education environments. CAON’s approach of precision analysis and bespoke response is always set against a backdrop of understanding these local trends and cultural tendencies.

CAON views the education sector in a fresh new light, conceiving of today’s learning environments as an opportunity for design to shape and guide the development of a new generation. The brand’s furniture solutions are sensitive, stylish additions to any learning space, and are designed to support and inspire.

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Designing Learning With Alexander Lotersztain at the helm, Derlot Editions is one of Australia’s leading furniture brands operating in the education landscape. Thanks to the brand’s specialised focus on loose systems furniture and design schemes catering to agile and activity-based working, Derlot Editions has produced world-leading education environments for universities, schools and colleges globally.

“With a focus on locally made products and a shared commitment to the architecture and design community, I believe Derlot Editions make a timely complement to the Education offering,” says Alexander Lotersztain, director at Derlot Editions.

As locally sourced, custom and bespoke furniture solutions, Derlot Editions’

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pieces are adaptable, versatile and uniquely Australian. Well-loved and celebrated designs grace the portfolio with top 10 furniture products such as Prisma; an all-encompassing modern solution for the working environment.

It is compact and functionally adaptable, yet possesses a bold geometric form that thinks outside of the box. The roster also includes products such as Twig, Stump, Tetromino, Autobahn, Bolet, Iceberg, Seed and Guell.

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The Fundamentals Les Basic, as the name implies, is about bringing things back to basics.

Elegant, understated, and effortlessly stylish, the Les Basic collection epitomises contemporary minimalist design. Returning to first principles, the Australian brand is committed to timeless visual and functional expression.

Yet none of this minimalism should suggest that Les Basic’s approach to design is simple. Rather, the brand explores the subtleties that comprise good design, which expertly builds emotional connections and inspires delight through precise but effective design cues. This emotional acuity is apparent in Les Basic’s blurring of the lines between different market sectors. Products nestle easily into commercial and residential spaces alike, bringing comfort, colour, and practical contemporary design to schools, offices and hospitality environments.

The ability of Les Basic furniture to bring the comfort and warmth of home to any environment is a perfect fit for today’s education spaces, where the ‘sticky

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campus’ concept is gaining ground. A far cry from the staid spaces of yesteryear, today’s schools and universities are abounding with character, engaging with students on an emotional level and encouraging them to stick around.

Les Basic’s sculptural designs provide a sophisticated, elegant context for this level of engagement, transitioning seamlessly between learning, work, and play.

Colourful and playful, the brand’s furniture brings a touch of much needed lightness and multi-functionality to the education space. Expertly combining sharp, contemporary design lines with luxury materials and well crafted, unexpected details, Les Basic provides opportunities for students to learn, play, relax, and develop creatively.

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Engineering Meets Design The Figueras Group is without question the world specialist in the design and manufacture of high-end fixed and movable seating systems. And what’s more, they’ve held this leadership position since 1929. During this time, The Figueras Group has supplied in excess of ten million seating systems to more than forty thousand public spaces, education environments and government facilities across the world.

to leverage the company’s specialised engineering and design capabilities.

From the company’s unique understanding of the engineering requirements for such large scale seating systems, Figueras’ orientation to designing for the education sector seeks to both optimise and maximise the profitability of space. In response to the increased needs of users, Figueras has led the conversation for integrating technology with design rigour for almost a century, reflecting the brand’s experience and strong focus on creating quality designs equipped with all the latest tools for the modern, tech-savvy end user.

The Figueras Group continues to manufacture these products in its 30,000 square-metre facility in Barcelona. With offices in Madrid, Barcelona, Portugal and subsidiaries in Germany, Asia, the United States, France and the United Kingdom, Figueras coordinates a global network to reduce lead times, generate custom solutions and lead the market with a truly international scope.

Tirelessly expanding its product portfolio, Figueras’ latest collections continue

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With a focus on combining high-quality designs with the latest technological advances and systems integration, Figueras takes a uniquely user-centric approach to emphasise profitability of space economisation without compromising on the dynamism of today’s agile education institutions.

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Extra Extreme With the intention of ‘tools for togetherness’, Extremis stands as one of the leading brands looking at how design can foster community and collaboration.

For almost twenty years, Extremis has remained true to its core of developing a portfolio of furniture that speaks to this mission. With Dirk Wynants at the helm of this Belgium-based brand, a passion for balancing functionality and beauty characterises each item in Extremis’ variety of ranges where, in his own words, “Extremis makes tools that make life better, more pleasant, and always functional.”

Specialists in developing innovative outdoor furniture systems that are as timeless in style as they are up-to-theminute in functionality, for Extremis the true distinction of good design is how it interfaces with the human element. Not only does this characterise the brand’s unique design approach, but it also

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encompasses Extremis’ orientation to service. With a global presence, Extremis has never invested in a production department – instead, with the world’s best manufacturers and suppliers for each individual design.

Giving Extremis the freedom to choose the best materials to suit application, need and the climate in which its designs will be installed, this uncommon approach also enables the brand to push its sustainability achievements even further. Whether by reducing transport volumes, using sustainably managed raw materials, or observing better quality standards, Extremis ensures that both its designs and our planet are liveable for centuries to come.

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Learning Environments A guide to specifying furniture solutions for various education applications.

Design has a central role in shaping the student experience, and Living Edge is committed to providing the Australian education sector with innovative furniture solutions that support, provoke and inspire. We’ve already recognised the power of design to shape and drive experience in our homes and offices, so why should our schools and universities be any different? We believe in design that can enhance the effectiveness of learning and teaching, irrespective of users and uses.

Our approach to design in the education landscape takes full advantage of research and development conducted by our brands into how design elements can enrich the educational experience. Identifying your critical success factors and providing a clear and direct furniture solution that will achieve these each and every time drives our approach.

Whether that is creating the conditions for your campus to become ‘sticky’

and generate new possibilities for your outdoor spaces, or ensuring that your students receive the best ergonomic support to keep them alert, engaged and healthy, to exploring new options for seating and workspaces, we intervene to consider ever link in the educational ecosystem.

Living Edge is here to guide and support our education clients every step of the way on their journey toward delivering fresh, fulfilling student experiences across (but not limited to) the following applications: • • • • • • • • • •

Classrooms Administration Collaborative spaces Open spaces Conference and meeting spaces Executive and chancellory offices Hospitality spaces Auditoriums and lecture theatres Student accommodation Outdoor areas

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Classroom In line with the flexible, agile classrooms of the modern age, Living Edge is pleased to present a selection of the latest and greatest in seating, desking and storage solutions that transition seamlessly between uses and users. Whether you’re after simple but effective design lines or vibrant statement pieces, versatility and adaptability, or space economisation or endurance.

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Administration Administering to the needs of staff, students and other associated stakeholders, the clerical responsibilities for educational institutions are vast and numerous. Supreme functionality, then, remains the order of the day. Our edit of highly functional furniture – all boasting an equally high level of intelligent, streamlined and contemporary design cues – promises to support a broad range of administrative needs and modes.

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Collaborative Spaces As collaboration becomes increasingly necessary, a broader cultural change within the education sector pushes teaching methodologies away from formal, rigid structures and more toward tailored strategies celebrating variations in needs and abilities. New demands and expectations of furnishing elements in the educational space, consequently, have arisen in line with these broad cultural changes. The Living Edge collaborative furnishings do just this, allowing for the carving out of quiet, comfortable pockets for collaboration in the midst of vibrant breakout spaces.

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Open Spaces Recognising the power of effective sociability, sense of community, and the operational and budgetary efficiency offered by furnishing systems to divide open, informal spaces, leading specifiers in this sector are increasingly promoting the success of ‘diverse’ learning environments: group spaces, smaller private zones for focused work, breakout zones to connect disparate needs and functional requirements, and the carving out of quiet, comfortable pockets for relaxation in the midst of vibrant communal spaces.

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Conference + Meeting Spaces Tutorial pedagogy isn’t what it used to be.

Eschewing gridded rows of desks and a frontal blackboard-facing orientation in favour of open space, flexibility, and adaptability, today’s education spaces are as dynamic and varied as the students they nurture. Open spaces and bright colours have replaced the staid, grey spaces of yesteryear, and designated spaces for collaborative learning for conferencing and meetings are on the rise.

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Executive + Chancellor Offices As the centre of an educational institution’s governance, the chancellor’s office lies at the cross section of student, staff and administrative needs. Requiring a high degree of functionality and efficiency to this end, such spaces, however, are also expected to speak to the core values of these stakeholders and the institution more broadly.

Living Edge’s collection of furniture for executive and chancellory offices carries an air of distinction coupled with attractive practicality.

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Hospitality Spaces In ever-increasing droves, today’s students are demanding greater provision of amenities to contribute to the education experience. For many, considerations surrounding cultural fit, diversity of eateries and convenience are factoring into the decision making process of students scouting prospective universities. No longer will curriculum and cost remain the only determining USP for universities seeking to entice enrollments. It’s all about achieving a ‘sticky campus’ – and the best method lies in reconceiving hospitality spaces.

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Auditorium As educational institutions grapple with increased enrolment numbers, never has spatial economising been more important. But as students continue to spend more and more time in auditoriums and lecture halls, institutions are now responding in inspiring ways to their health needs without compromising on the functional requirements of maximising space. Our collection of furniture for auditoriums combines the latest in ergonomics with design savinness to elevate both the space and experience of modern education.

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Student Accommodation Since the Eleventh Century with the advent of the first university, tertiary learning environments have been thought of as small cities unto their own. This spirit is as true today as it was all those centuries ago. Creating opportunities for learning, socialising, living and working, university masterplanning seeks to create the conditions for a lifestyle of active, collaborative and happy learning – and in this, the role of student accommodation cannot be overstated. Providing students with convenient, comfortable, affordable and (most importantly) learning-supportive living quarters is swiftly proving to provide competitive advantage to education providers in Australia. Living Edge is proud to offer the best adaptable, cost-sensitive and sustainable furniture solutions tailored to the changing needs of this dynamic landscape.

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Outdoor Areas Increasingly seeking to improve the operational and spatial efficiency of the built educational environment, today’s leading education providers are creating opportunities to maximise the full potential of campus masterplanning to both contribute to the culture of the locale, as well as bolster celebration of diversity in learning outcomes. The effective use of outdoor spaces cannot be overstated in this. Activation of exterior environments not only extends the breadth of spaces for end-user access, but also speaks to the biophilic turn in both design and pedagagocial thinking: drawing upon the power of the outdoor environment to support wellbeing, learning and social interaction.

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Living Projects Redesigning the conditions of learning and teaching across Australia.

For more than two decades, Living Edge has worked with universities, schools, training campuses and other educational environments across Australia. Our education sector design consultants understand the complexities and characteristics of the Australian educational landscape, using insights from across the country and the world to deliver world-class design solutions to support the thinkers and doers of tomorrow.

Collaborating on the development of some of Australia’s most inspiring education environments, Living Edge is proud to have been involved in helping to advance the cultures of teaching and learning throughout the country.

We are firm believers in the importance of investing in the future – and whether this means providing comfortable, healthy environments for learning or inspiring new generations of creatives through intelligent and aware design, Living Edge leads by example.

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The Future Is Flexibility Western Sydney University (NSW) Flinders University (SA)

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Australian universities lead the revolution of future-proofed learning environments, with a student-centric design approach.

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“Responding to a non-faculty brief allowed us to test the blend between formal and informal learning spaces.’’

Alan Duffy, Woods Bagot

Responding to the rampant changes shaping the commercial sector of the future, today’s learning environments call upon an enormous body of research into the behavioural, operational, educational and social benefits of ‘diversity’ – whatever that can be, wherever it can be found. Within the past decade, Australian universities, particularly, have demonstrated inspired forward-thinking in terms of marrying design thinking with the shifting expectations of an incredibly diverse stakeholder community.

“Responding to a non-faculty brief allowed us to test the blend between formal and informal learning spaces,’’ says Woods Bagot’s regional education sector leader, Alan Duffy, on the firm’s five-Green-Star-rated One Parramatta Square (1PSQ) campus for Western Sydney University (WSU). Informed by a pointedly humancentric approach rather than faculty-specific design direction, WSU’s new campus offers both teaching and student bodies the opportunity to pursue idiosyncratic behaviours best suited to their own learning or professional needs. “Our design outcome is a flexible, adaptive vertical campus environment that encourages learning through conversation,” Duffy mentions in reference to the project’s emphasis on the power of socaibility in educational contexts.

Bringing “conversation” to the fore of effective learning and teaching necessarily requires a reformulation of traditional campus hierarchies. In 1PSQ’s vertical campus structure, interstitial spaces no longer demarcate faculty domain, discrete student and administration areas, but instead open the campus’ entire flooplate up to greater potentials – connecting the university’s many and varied stakeholder groups, from separate departmental faculties, all the way through to various levels of seniority in both the student and staff communities.

With conversation at the heart of the project’s design intent, 1PSQ evidently promotes the need for greater

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collaborative engagement between such disparate end-user demographics. To this end, the specification of furniture systems geared toward encouraging these collaborative opportunities was key. Turning to Derlot Editions’ suite of flexible and adaptive collaborative furniture, Woods Bagot’s team selected the Twig and Prisma seating systems to support this fluidity of social interaction. Designed to meet both the endurance and flexibility factors required by a more agile-based learning environment, Twig and Prisma’s natural form and generous amenity create casual meeting points, lounge areas and breakout zones throughout the various connective spaces of the vertical campus.

In more ways than one, such insights were informed

by Woods Bagot’s earlier work with Derlot Editions for the 2016 Flinders University Plaza and Student Hub in Adelaide. Connecting the various functional, social and operational needs of various university groups, the design draws on findings through the engagement of students, teachers and staff, which included creating student ‘owned’ spaces for study, recreation and socialising, teaching and learning facilities, studentfacing services, food and beverage offerings and student support services. Now a dynamic precinct abuzz with rich social engagement, the project “focuses on student interaction engagement and services,” says Wood Bagot Director, Thomas Masullo, “allowing the new Student Hub and Plaza to become a vibrant place to learn, connect and play.”

Like the furniture systems used to bring this sense of vibrant communality at 1PSQ, for Flinders University, Derlot Editions’ Twig benches and Stump stools were used generously throughout to create small areas of rest, connection, productivity and learning. Viewed as the new ‘front door’ to the university, the plaza and central core of the campus now draws students into a contemporary education environment with a diversity of spaces designed for active learning.

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Uncommon Encounters Monash University (VIC)

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A university’s purpose is to encourage students to think differently and act autonomously. In Monash University’s Learning and Teaching Building, it is finally being recognised that the architecture needs to mirror this.

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“The learning spaces of the interior are visible and accessible to the wider campus and community, rather than removed from the ground in a vertical structure.”

John Wardle, John Wardle Architects

Universities are often thought of as the gatekeepers of higher learning within our societies. It has long been recognised that their purpose is to encourage students to think independently and act autonomously. Yet historically there has been somewhat of a Catch-22 inherent in this lofty theory. In preserving the wisdom of past generations, these gated institutions have often wilfully kept out more radical and progressive visions of our changing educational landscape.

Considering the sheer amount of time that students now spend within these educational communities, it is important that they not only empowered to pursue free thought within the classroom, but also to pursue it more broadly throughout the grounds. Which is why the more forward-looking of our universities are now rid themselves of the idea that education only happens within lecture theatres and tutorial rooms, instead chasing an ‘agile’ educational agenda that gives students the opportunity to use those in-between spaces – both within buildings and between them – for more independent styles of learning.

As its name would suggest, Monash University’s Learning and Teaching Building (LTB) functions as a mecca for education within the Clayton campus. Heralded as the ‘gateway building’ for the university, the recently completed project is tasked with setting the tone for its students and, as the public face of the university from Wellington Road, for the broader community. Fortuitously, with the help of John Wardle Architects, this tone is one of pioneering spirit and underpinning flexibility.

The current site of Monash’s Clayton campus has a long history of reinvention. As most of our land did, it started as Indigenous bushland, before going through its subsequent metamorphoses as colonial farmland, suburban subdivision and, finally, a university campus.

Between its long history as public land and the fact that universities are increasingly abandoning their inwardfacing focus, it was important to John Wardle Architects that the new interior landscape they were creating connected to the landscape beyond its borders.

Alongside a state-of-the-art new building, the masterplan for the project included transport infrastructure and integrated streetscapes. An additional transport interchange in front of the LTB has increased

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the capacity for buses to and from the university, easing the commute for the campus’ thousands of daily visitors.

Once these visitors enter through the gateway, they find themselves among, in the wors of John Wardle Architects “streets, courtyards, bridges, balconies and stairs [that] are transformed into ravines, clearings, strands, perches, escarpments and amphitheatres […] choreographed to invent a new landscape of the interior.”

Throughout the centre itself, the 29,227 square metres and formal and informal learning spaces are grouped in clusters, “like neighbourhoods”. Staff also benefit from the addition of contemporary employee workspaces.

Only four-storeys in height, Monash’s LTB is more about ground-level and interior experience than the pre-existing tower structures that have formerly defined the Clayton campus (for instance, the 11-storey Menzies building that neighbours the contemporary development).

“The LTB demonstrates a shift away from the modernist stand-alone tower, instead incorporating a horizontal field of spaces set within a broad, low-rise building,” says the architect.

This is not to say the floorplates aren’t large. Rather, more spacious levels were designed as an attempt to bring didactic modes of learning into a contemporary context. A prime example of this is ‘The Kiln’, a series of giant, curved, brick funnels, suspended above the ground so that students can occupy the plushly furnished space beneath. Inspired by the idea of conversation pits, these aesthetically and functionally effective dens are designed to bring focus to collaborative student interactions.

The broad scope of spaces provided to students and staff has been made possible by a furniture scheme whose creation was assisted by Living Edge.

In order to achieve the desired outcome for greater collaboration and congregation of staff, students and all touch-points on the stakeholder spectrum, a suite of collaborative seating offset conference-like round tables in open spaces. – the diversity of the masterplan is comprehensively mirrored in the interior scheme, allowing it to fulfil its potential as a Learning and Teaching Building that takes a radical, progressive and ultimately functional approach to higher education.

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Class Of Its Own RMIT New Academic Street (VIC)

RMIT’s New Academic Street pushes new boundaries for designing the conditions for an inclusive campus culture.

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“It’s not about a one-size-fits-all approach anymore.

Rather, it’s about giving students the option to choose the sort of space they want to study in.”

Lyons Architecture, Lead Architect

Monolithic and established as their infrastructure tends to be, universities are by and large struggling to keep up with the increasingly nomadic needs of a new generation. To the surprise of approximately no one, technology is the driving force behind this check-incheck-out model of education – but a full embrace of this revolution requires more than just a fast internet connection and an investment in some new computers.

And, frankly, it would be a waste to disregard the monolithic architectural structures of our educational inheritance out of hand. For example: despite the less-than-ideal moniker that RMIT’s old concrete block buildings had earned – the ‘grey ghosts’ – it was hard to overlook the potential of such infrastructure when the time came for a contemporary facelift. If a few structural interventions could be achieved, it would be possible for the existing ‘ghost’ shells to be left in-tact; for them to have second lives as icons of Australia’s new era of education.

And, thanks to a select team of architects, this is exactly what RMIT has become. The bold reimagining of this Melbourne institution, completed in 2017, was led by architectural firm Lyons, in tight-knit collaboration with NMBW, Maddison, MvS, and Harrison and White. Not so coincidentally, all of these practices comprised RMIT alumni, and they were therefore intimate with all of the benefits and limitations of prior learning models.

This entwined history made Lyons’ appeal for a crossfirm effort for the project particularly appealing to the university.

At the heart of this reimagining – which, make no mistake, required a diverse portfolio of solutions – was the broadly encompassing idea of connectivity. To be clear, this did not just mean connectivity between the students (although, to a great degree, it did entail this).

Increasingly, universities around the world – or at least those not so resistant to evolving student needs – are disavowing themselves of their previously inward focus to play larger roles as the bastions of local communities.

Both inward- and outward-looking models of connectivity were investigated and enacted within the Lyons-led intervention for RMIT’s New Academic Street (NAS) project. The latter of these models was lent particular ease by virtue of RMIT’s central location within Melbourne CBD. Whereas the groundwork of the existing site had blocked out interaction with the public and street levels of the buildings, the new age of

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connectivity was ushered in by the architectural team through the incorporation of street-level laneways that were peppered with retail outlets, arcades and walkways. Between them, this actively and conspicuously welcomed the public into the student fold.

As pertinent as it was to have infrastructure that encouraged social interaction around the campus, so too was it important to incorporate these kinds of spaces within the hunting grounds of the student population. Not just a surface-level aesthetic enhancement, the architects completely reconfigured the existing RMIT buildings inside and out, opening them up to a range of new and innovative functionalities.

A full spectrum of learning nodes can be found within RMIT’S pioneering NAS project. The kind of connectivity that is seen at street-level within the laneway additions can further be witnessed with a climb through the buildings’ core. While structural changes were made to enhance the less tangible ‘feel’ of the buildings – such as with the demolition of pre-existing concrete pillars for the sake of creating a sense of light and air – a lot of the changes were necessarily tangible and functional.

For instance, Living Edge was engaged to provide flexible furnishings that could balance the varying needs of the student population, from focussed study areas with softened acoustics to spaces that were designed for talking and collaboration. This mixing of formal and informal learning portals was accommodated in NAS through the addition of 4,600 seats across the project’s 32,000 square metres.

As representatives of Lyons explained to Indesign Media: “It’s not about a one-size-fits-all approach anymore.

Rather, it’s about giving students the option to choose the sort of space they want to study in.”

Now, instead of the outdated and rigid tertiary formula of hard plastic seats rolled out ad nauseum through an institution, NAS has welcomed the more relevant age of agile education into the gamut of RMIT’s offerings. On the inside, this encompasses everything from rocking chairs to a Lyons-designed ‘grassy’ space that mimics the lawn of the State Library of Victoria.

On the whole, this manifests as a city-in-miniature; a smart community that is as hospitable to the general public as it is to the student population that relies on it.

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Curtin Call Curtin University (WA)

Curtin University’s vibrant new Connect Hub is a place where students can come and get what they need, instantly.

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Curtin University’s vibrant new Connect Hub is a place where students can come and get what they need, instantly.

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“Success is creating inspiring, engaging and differentiated student experiences while providing ‘best in class’ university services.”

Geyer

In a way, university campuses led the charge of the agile work movement. Necessarily, tertiary architecture has tended to incorporate flexible spaces where students could drop in and work between classes. But as progressive as this might be in a workplace environment, this is not to say that it has always been done with scale in mind, and nor has it necessarily been executed with a concern for comfort.

Yet, the development of a comfortable and welcoming campus eco-system is crucial for attracting and retaining students – and for encouraging their success.

This was at the forefront of Geyer’s consideration when they were developing the design for Curtin Connect, the dynamic new independent research hub at Perth’s Curtin University.

Curtin’s main campus was originally built in the 1960s, meaning there was not much that was agile about it.

Over the past decade, major changes were made to the architectural makeup of the space, such as with the addition of entire new buildings that boasted a more modern sensibility. A significant landscape and garden element was also incorporated into the design so that students had the flexibility to move between inside and out.

When Geyer was brought on board to design a collaborative space within one such building, creating an “eco-system” that drew from the practical and often idiosyncratic needs of campus infrastructure was a top priority. Specifically, they wanted to give students a space where they could come anytime with the knowledge that they’d be able to get what they wanted instantly – whatever that might be.

For this, it was necessary to combine the ‘soft’ needs of comfortable seating and workable desk arrangements with the harder functions of technological and administrative backing. It was a broad scope to account for, but, as a firm specialising in workplace, education, retail and hospitality environments, Geyer was uniquely placed to fill it.

In the words of a Geyer representative, the project team was aware that: “Success is creating inspiring, engaging

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and differentiated student experiences while providing ‘best in class’ university services. To support sustained success, students require the support of efficient systems and workplaces that promote communication and teamwork.”

Obviously, the requisite underpinning of all of these different aspects was artful specification. A wide range of plush furnishings, equipped for different purposes – whether silent individual desks, communal tables, isolated meeting spaces, couches or standing computer desks – was crucial to the success of the project.

Students not only needed a space that they could come to for different things at different times, but also one that made them want to come there. In other words, it needed to be warm, welcoming, comfortable and functional.

Geyer turned to Living Edge as a fellow company who was capable of owning this breadth and diversity. The PROOFF range of furniture was chosen as it contained a wide range of pieces that were able to be adapted to different needs – from private, cocooned workspaces and individual pods to busy work environments and communal meeting points. The acoustically minded design of these pieces perfectly allowed for these different functions to coexist without overlap.

For instance, the EarChair was specified as a piece that was capable of creating an intimate setting even in the midst of group-working noise. The extended ears of this piece reach out from head-height to provide acoustic protection from an occupier’s surroundings.

Then, on the other end of the spectrum, the BeTween office furniture concept by Studio Makkink & Bey was used as an easily adaptable workspace. Here, three-inone functionality is incorporated into a tree-like structure that invites users to engage with it in different ways.

In the end, it was a collaboration between these two adaptable companies – Geyer and Living Edge – that gave students exactly the kind of personalised, responsive and agile environment they needed for an enriched tertiary experience.

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The Sticky Campus Queensland University of Technology (QLD)

The Queensland University of Technology (QUT) suggests that collaboration should come easy.

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“The Creative Industries Precincts’ studios are world-class, and the public spaces are jaw-droppingly beautiful.”

Greg Jenkins, Head of Studies: School of Media Entertainment and Creative Arts, QUT Creative Industries

It is difficult to believe that this thriving hub of dance, drama and music is a former army barracks. Such is the degree of transformation achieved by HASSELL and Richard Kirk Architect for the Queensland University of Technology’s (QUT) Creative Industries Precinct.

Seeking a brand new facility to house the university’s creative disciplines – comprising, but not limited to, performance studies, film and animation and creative research programs – QUT’s Creative Industries Precinct offers students a dynamic destination in which they are invited to learn, create, experiment and perform together on a 24/7 basis.

Given the innovative and imaginative scope required by QUT’s combined creative faculties, the precinct’s various spaces needed to maintain a high level of flexibility while also strategically allowing a foretaste for passers-by of the exciting work undertaken within. As you walk through the precinct, little vignettes of ingenuity delight – making a very positive message about the future of Australia’s creative prowess.

According to HASSELL, “the building supports a transdisciplinary approach to teaching and learning – for a precinct that’s social, immersive and multi-connected.”

Throughout, the spaces for academic learning have cast aside the enclosed, cellular formats of yore to instead welcome a more approachable, collaborative model of teaching and learning. Couple this with a variety of different amenities – from research labs to shared spaces, performance spaces and beyond – QUT has succeeded in developing one of Australia’s leading ‘sticky campus’ environments.

“From the minute we opened the doors,” comments Jenkins to Michael Keniger for ArchitectureAU, “it was clear we were on a winner. Smiles and goggle eyes everywhere. A pleasant hum of activity from the foyers forms a backdrop to my office. Dancers are warming up

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in the corridors and eating their lunch in the kitchens.

Drama students are going to rehearsals, then discussing their work at the tables adjacent and even occupying meeting rooms. Musicians are running jam sessions. The building needs no user manual and, as I suspected, the students will lead the culture in the spaces.” Wherever the eye alights, you have a distinct feeling that this is more of a functioning and supportive community than a tertiary education institution.

At the heart of the Creative Industries Precinct, a six-storey building houses QUT’s dance, drama, music, animation, creative writing and research programs.

Designed around the concept of high circulation, this central nucleus celebrates the precinct’s communityoriented philosophy to “deliberately put people in each other’s paths daily.” Flooded with natural light, bright and airy interiors punctuated with an array of collaborative furniture showcase the ingenuity, cooperation and of imagination that QUT’s staff and student bodies exemplify.

Given the constantly transitional and responsive nature of modern tertiary curricula, the building supports the idea that porous learning spaces are future-proofed for ongoing adaptation. Transparent and adaptable, the development has provided the wider community with a coherent system of energetic public spaces.

Recognised as one of the most significant high-tech creative education spaces across Australia, the level of sophistication needed to facilitate the incubation of tomorrow’s creative leaders cannot be overstated.

Deemed an acropolis of creativity innovation and performance, everything from exhibition spaces to restaurants, auditoriums to formal learning spaces, all coalesce across the precinct’s seven core buildings.

The result? Shared ambition. Common enterprise. The curtain rises on one glitteringly artistic future.

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To the Heart of Learning St Andrew’s Anglican College (QLD)

St Andrew’s Anglican College has been transformed from being disparate to, today, celebrating cohesion.

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“The space has shifted the focus towards student-centred learning, as opposed to concentrating on teachers and their classrooms.”

Hamilton Wilson, Wilson Architects

The concept of a quiet learning space that is designed to accommodate concerts seems like antinomy. And yet, this was what Wilson Architects was asked to do when they were engaged to design the new Learning Hub at St. Andrew’s Anglican College on the Sunshine Coast.

The rapidly growing school was in need of additional capacity and infrastructure, but at the same time, there was no one function that could be pinned down as necessary. Instead, the school really needed a building that could act as many buildings in one: staff headquarters, student lounge, professional development care, outdoor learning area and both a primary and a secondary school library.

Symbolically and sensibly, the two-storey learning centre sits between the primary and secondary campuses of St. Andrew’s College. Necessarily, the interior is designed to be as accommodating as possible to all ages and needs, from kindergarten through to the mature needs of staffers. Each individual area has been imbued with multiple uses, such as a tiered seating area for student collaboration that can also double as an amphitheatrelike setting for concerts.

The Hub is the first manifestation of the college’s desire to move towards a more collaborative style of learning, and is more akin to a university facility than it is to a typical secondary school setting – not to mention primary school. Trials were undertaken prior to and during the design phase of the project that informed the layout, look and feel of spaces within the building, to pre-empt and accommodate the way students would use them. A strategy and sequence has also been set up for the Hub’s future construction stages. “The space has shifted the focus towards student-centred learning, as opposed to concentrating on teachers and their

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classrooms,” says Hamilton Wilson, managing director at Wilson Architects. “[It] has given students a real sense of ownership of the space and their learning.

“The school has been transformed from being very disparate to extremely cohesive, with a pulsing heart of activity at its centre.”

To foster the desired sense of welcome and inclusivity, the interior scheme incorporates ‘warm’ materials, such as the extensive use of dark woods along the ceilings and several of the bench seating arrangements, and the use of earth-toned carpets. Large glass panels line the periphery and are used in place of full walls at certain points within the building, contributing a sense of light and transparency to the Hub. At the heart of this new learning portal is a furniture scheme that brings the ‘flexibility’ of the brief to life.

Outside the classroom, this is evidenced in a mix of hard and soft furnishings, and a balance of group work stations and focused learning areas for individual study.

Inside the classroom, the traditional formula is lent an adaptive twist, with mixed chair heights and moveable desks that can be reconfigured according to the needs of the day.

Ultimately, the most important critics of such spaces come from within the student body itself. According to St. Andrew’s Anglican College principal Chris Ivey, the Learning Hub has been seamlessly adopted within the gamut of daily activity.

“I have spent chunks of time each day in the Hub, observing the way our students are using the facility, and it is wonderful to see them using it as if it has always been there,” he says.

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Three Cheers For Churchie Anglican Church Grammar School (QLD)

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The Centenary Library at Anglican Church Grammar School (QLD) supports nuanced cognitive behavior for staff and students alike.

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“Here, the intent of The Centenary Library’s design and function acknowledges the importance of surface, deep and transfer learning. […] The bespoke and responsive learning spaces provide teachers with greater pedagogical freedom.”

Terry Byers, Director of the Churchie Centenary Library

In the Anglican Church Grammar School – fondly known as Churchie – The Centenary Library stands as the most significant project undertaken in the school’s 106-year history. By Brisbane-based Brand and Slater Architects, The Centenary Library sits alongside the campus’ heritage-protected buildings and reflects the rich educational and architectural legacy this boys’ school has provided for more than a century.

Designed to support a new pedagogical model, The Centenary Library celebrates the collaborative and more agile behaviours of today’s students. Generously embracing technology, the library’s dynamic open spaces and zones for creative collisions look forward to a future of innovation and learning that brings creativity to the fore.

Inspired by the educational culture of tertiary institutions, the library’s design and function are informed by the key academic and pastoral services at the core of Churchie’s four tenets. The resulting design collates Student (careers, chaplain, educational psychologist and service), Information and ICT Services including Aquila (gifted and talented) and Learning Support all within a single building.

A high degree of synergy colours every square-inch of the space, making a bold statement about the potential for libraries and learning hubs to be a central component of a boy’s daily life.

Everywhere, it would seem, The Centenary Library suggests that tomorrow’s educational best practice is going to extend beyond the ‘typical’ school day. A variety of spaces along the formal-informal spectrum support the diversity of students’ learning behaviours to this end.

According to Terry Byers, Director of the Churchie Centenary Library, “the array of spaces can support the scaffolded acquisition of concepts and content through to creative and critical thinking.” It would be difficult to overemphasise the significance of this achievement for staff and student benefit alike. “Prior research at Churchie,” says Byers,

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“established the empirical evidence to suggest that learning spaces own the potential to facilitate (or limit) quality pedagogy.” So the sheer array of The Centenary Library’s digital, physical and spatial technologies hold the potential to support the key distinctions of all subject areas within the school’s remit.

Above the library’s architectural innovations, the design approach adopted by Brand and Slater Architects in collaboration with the Learning Environments Applied Research Network (LEaRN), offers an inspiring glimpse at the future of applied strategic improvements for design in the education space.

Recognising that several longitudinal studies had correlated different learning space designs to improvements in student perceptions and engagement – ultimately affecting significant academic gains in language and STEM studies – design innovation at Churchie has proactively contributed to several learning and teaching critical success factors.

But beyond providing students a space in which they long to be – and thus, long to learn – The Centenary Library provides teaching practitioners increased agency. Investing in teachers’ continual professional development, the introduction of an applied research centre within the building’s footprint facilitates, according to Byers, “the agile development of evidencebased next-practice, professional learning and provocative thought.”

And insofar as this is the case, it comes at no surprise.

Across Australia, Churchie is renowned for being at the forefront of educational research. Seeking to develop more future-focused partnerships to enrich the practice and capabilities of its teachers, The Centenary Library stands forth as one of this country’s most meaningful drivers of change to affect improved learning outcomes for students and greater pedagogical innovation for teachers.

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The City’s Lounge Room City of Perth Library

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The City Of Perth Library responds to community needs and dreams in ways that few of the world’s libraries can match.

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“The cylindrical building design has created a space far advanced from the traditional public lending library, to an exciting community hub that the people of Perth and surrounds can be proud of.”

City of Perth Lord Mayor Lisa-M. Scaffidi

Standing the true test of time, public libraries have always been a place of history, original ideas, selfimprovement and contemplation. But despite their legacy or infrastructural functional requirements – that being, to simply accommodate for book exchanges – today, public libraries are engaging vibrant social locales for life-long learning and enjoyment, providing endless opportunities to meet and connect with people as well as knowledge.

When Kerry Hill Architects, then, turned to the design for the newly reimagined City Of Perth Library, the team knew that this public institution needed to be flexible enough to be many things for many different people. For the Lord Mayor of Perth – Lisa-M. Scaffidi – this offered an incredible opportunity to revivify “a historical but under-used and rather uninviting area of the city.” Contextualised squarely within the ambit of urban lifeways and community culture to this end, Kerry Hill Architects’ response constitutes one of the most significant developments in the history of Western Australia’s capital city and, in the words of Kerry Hill, “allows an architectural reading as a discrete object – a new contribution to the surrounding urban milieu.”

Considered the first major civic building construction since Perth Concert Hall was built 40 years ago, Kerry Hill Architects’ state-of-the-art 3,500 sqm City of Perth Library adds a fresh dimension to the precinct of Cathedral Square in Perth’s central business district.

Responsible for the entirely new cylindrical form, the design team’s competition-winning proposal incorporated heritage design elements to reference the surrounding streetscape. Not only does this activate the precinct once again, but it forges a sense of continuity in both the community and architectural expression of Perth’s dynamic identities.

Although the granite fins swathe the entire building to establish a civic presence, upon entry to the Library reveals the recessed ground floor through frameless glass panels. A curved staircase is accessible on all levels and wraps around the exterior of the building.

While the main library collection spans multiple levels, a triple heighted void connects the various storeys of the 90

building while also offering the form a sense of elevation that, quite literally, allows the mind to soar.

Designing the upper levels of the building to taper southwards simultaneously maximised the exposure to direct sunlight and brought to effect a spatial hinge between Cathedral Avenue and the adjacent public amenities. These upper levels accommodate function spaces and the children’s collection that is positioned around a doubled scale “winter garden” with a central tree: The Tree of Knowledge, referencing the mythological crux of storytelling in the Christian, Judaic and Islamic traditions.

Internally, the use of materials and joinery such as timber detailing ensures that the new library exudes a warm atmosphere that welcomes the young and old alike to a familiar, comforting and safe environment. Softer finishes within reading areas tempts individuals to stay and read for longer.

In such a diverse and multi-functional environment, Living Edge’s HOWE furniture range was specified for its design simplicity, quality and functionality without compromising on style or performance. Specifically, the incorporation of the award-winning 40/4 Side Chair brings a supreme ergonomic value-add to the build and its awareness of public need and the provision of civic best practice. Whereas HOWE’s Tempest Table, which is recognised throughout the industry as a benchmark for being a ‘zero-weight’ system, brings advanced flexibility functionalities to the furniture systems used throughout to accommodate for this institution’s various and shifting needs.

And yet, even though The City of Perth Library has ben rightly awarded numerous accolades including the inaugural Library Design Award by the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA), across the design industry the project’s true success is generally noted to be the innovative approach to material composition.

This is urban intervention that is aware of evolving demographics and usage. This is serving the community through ground-breaking design. This is City Of Perth Library: the city’s lounge room where people meet, play, learn and create … together.

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Collaborate And Collocate Leiden University (NL)

Ingenious design in university interstitial spaces represents a critical value opportunity for institutions wanting to enrich their cultures of collaboration.

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“Whether offering students a space to eat, drink and be merry, or enabling the possibility to collaborate in an open environment, Leiden University’s collaborative settings actively contribute to elevating the student experience.”

Thanks to their increased importance in our nation’s future, tertiary education environments have become a proving ground for a generation that is spending some of their most formative years on campus. Insofar as this is the case, it is impossible to overemphasise the importance of university spaces to shape student experience and help all pupils to develop to their fullest potential. Naturally, teaching staff, curricula and support programs play a vital role in this; however, design cannot be overlooked as a part (and very much, the sum) of campus experience. Architecture, interior design and even the master planning of the campus itself are critical in creating the conditions for active learning, creativity, community and knowledge building.

institutes could be united to form a single, modern, communicative and open faculty, where an optimal exchange of knowledge between the various research streams, but also between education and research, would be facilitated. Approaching this goal, design teams recognised the untapped potential of these transitional spaces in forging the visual and traffic collocation between disparate faculties’ built assets. Across the central axis of the generic building segments – under the university’s famous ‘flying saucer’ containing lecture theatres – design teams specified a suite of Extremis’ Hopper Tables, connecting students in the training areas with tenured staff and researchers in the administrative wings.

Growing recognition of this importance has prompted a widespread reconsideration of how university institutions incorporate their spaces into the overall master planning of campus amenities. Australian universities are increasingly embracing intermediary spaces as a method to achieve the ‘sticky campus’ and alleviate the occupation rates of task-specific interiors such as libraries, auditoriums and conference rooms.

According to JHK Architecten, this central axis with collaborative, essential furniture “creates the opportunity to meet and links the various areas of the faculty to form a single unit. On the east side of the hall, over the entire length and height of the building, there is an impressive showcase of knowledge, where lecture theatres, laboratories and meeting rooms reflect the character of the faculty.” No doubt enriching the student experience and provision of proactive knowledge enterprise, the project has also been applauded for its innovative approach to sustainable outcomes – leading to the Science Campus being awarded a BREEAM-NL Very Good certification recognising superlative sustainability design.

Whether with respect to the provision of hospitality spaces, breakout zones or simply just areas for congregation, ingenious design in university transitional areas – such as walkways and corridors, waiting rooms, lobbies and ancillary waiting areas – represents a critical value opportunity for institutions to enrich the campus experience, attract greater numbers of enrolments, and retain vital tenured talent.

This is something very much at the core of the Belgianbased studio, Extremis. Motivated by the philosophy of designing ‘tools for togetherness’, Extremis is one of the world’s leading brands rethinking how design can foster both community and collaboration. As specialists in developing innovative outdoor furniture to this end, for Extremis, the distinction of good design is how it interfaces with the human element. A watershed project for the Netherlands’ Leiden University campus demonstrates Extremis’ very human-centred approach to design in the university environment.

Across an approximate total of 100,000 square-metres of Leiden University’s Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, JHK Architecten and Inbo Rotterdam developed a plan where the previous collection of siloed 94

In keeping with the university’s renown throughout Europe for providing contemporary and competencebased higher education, practice-oriented research and comprehensive social services, Extremis’ participation in a successful design resolution has effectively extended the profile of learning beyond the four walls of a classroom, library or auditorium. With a focus on responsibility and ownership, the university has provided students the opportunity to guide their own learning habits, promote greater wellbeing and communality overall. Dotted throughout campus grounds – adjacent to walkways, eateries and key university building egress routes – Extremis’ Hopper Tables bring a buzzy atmosphere to university life. Whether offering students a space to eat, drink and be merry, or enabling the possibility to collaborate with their teachers, researchers and scientists in an open environment, Leiden University’s collaborative transitional settings actively contribute to elevating the student experience.

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Ivy League Of Their Own Cornell University (USA)

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As the most recent addition to Cornell’s already impressive built assets, it isn’t difficult to see why the project has turned heads across the globe.

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“An exercise in modest, discrete intervention.”

Rem Koolhaas, OMA

The last time they counted in 2008, Cornell University had 245,027 living alumni. Among this number are 31 Marshall Scholars, 28 Rhodes Scholars, and a staggering litany of famous names. Cornell is the stomping ground of Nobel Prize winners, NASA astronauts, presidents and prime ministers and a surprising percentage of the world’s leading C-level executives. Across its campus grounds is a veritable living museum of architectural history. Buildings by the likes of I.M Pei (of the Louvre Pyramid fame), Richard Meier and Charles Babcock punctuate lush gardens and lawns, with the most recent addition to this architectural hall of fame being former alum and current starchitect, Rem Koolhaas.

Koolhaas’ Milstein Hall at Cornell University is one of the latest projects by the juggernaut architecture studio of OMA. As the most recent addition to Cornell’s already impressive built assets, it isn’t difficult to see why the project has turned heads across the globe. A consummate example of architectural form, Koolhaas has described Milstein Hall as “an exercise in modest, discrete intervention.” Steel, glass and cement coalesce into a striking architectural expression of Cornell’s guiding philosophy: “any person … any study”.

Seeking to foster collaboration, creative collisions, flexibility and active learning behaviours, Milstein Hall, in the words of Shohei Shigematsu who worked alongside

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Koolhaas, “was the direct response to the need for interaction that the art field entails. [Our goal…] was for it to serve as a pedagogical platform for the architecture, art and planning departments – an open condition that could trigger interaction and discussion.”

In an interview with ArchDaily, Shigematsu further commented that “I am sure the students and faculty will generate unexpected uses and conditions that go beyond what we have planned for Milstein Hall.”

A significant contributing factor to this is the degree of bespoke elements throughout the building. Take Milstein Hall’s central auditorium. Serving as both a teaching space and as a meeting room for university trustees, the space is harnessed for two very different purposes and needed a furnishings solution that could deliver on each.

Working with Figueras International Seating, Cornell and OMA have been able to achieve a simple, informal solution for students using the auditorium for lectures, as well as high-performance chairs with a degree of pulchritude for the university’s venerated trustees.

The result – a spacious chair with a built-in writing tablet that could be stored automatically under the floor and oriented in different positions – reaffirms Figueras’ position as a leading solutions provider for the unique needs of the contemporary education market.

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Laboratory For The Future Princeton University (USA)

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When Princeton University remodelled the Frick Chemistry Laboratory in recent years, it repositioned the place the university held in the collective psychology of America.

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“We reinterpreted the typical laboratory layout to achieve transparency right across the building. […We] hoped to bring everyone together and enhance collaboration and creativity.”

Michael Hopkins, Hopkins

This was the climate: the national economy had plummeted to an all time low, ushering in the bitter days of the Great Depression. Prohibition continued to drive underground crime and syndical dissidence.

The country became increasingly involved in peace treaties and summits following the First World War. All of a sudden, America realised consistent growth in the export value of its scientific endeavours – particularly within the realm of commerce. Efforts to this end saw the country’s leading minds develop the first electric washing machines, irons, frozen food technology, the assembly line, the model T automobile and the radio amplifier (among other pioneering innovations).

So, when in 1929, the Frick Chemistry Laboratory at Princeton University threw open its doors, it registered a clarion call in the nation’s psyche.

It would be difficult to overestimate the degree of influence that this institution had on the century that would follow. So many of the Twentieth Century’s technological and scientific achievements – for good or bad – find genesis here. From the very first anticancer medication through to the development of the guided missile, Princeton’s warren of laboratories heralded a brave new world where rigorous empiricism and experimentation reigned supreme. At the turn of the millennium, however, the once-illustrious hallways were found somewhat wanting in lustre. Squarely in the Twenty-First Century, the laboratory’s dark, cramped facilities had become outmoded and were putting pressure on Princeton’s competitive edge by making it difficult for the institution to attract world-class faculty talent and prospective graduates.

So in 2011 when Princeton turned its eye toward updating these student amenities, learning spaces and technical laboratories to align with today’s educational and scientific demands, it constituted a complete reimagining of the Frick Chemistry Laboratory and surrounding Natural Sciences Neighbourhood. Engaging Hopkins Architects and Payette Associates, the newly reimagined Frick Chemistry Laboratory is, according to University Architect Ron McCoy, truly unique amongst Princeton’s illustrious architectural assets: “This building is a kind of advanced architectural integration of all the systems of architecture, beginning

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with the structural frame, the glass panels, the stairways and the glass railings, and the photovoltaic panels. Each one of those is, in a sense, a contemporary version of a craft such as carving stone. But rather than seeing a sort of labour of the hand, you see the sophisticated, complete integration of all the elements. We have no building on campus that touches this building in that regard – that sense of total, unified integration.”

In fact, better words could not have been chosen.

Unified integration speaks to so much more than the vernacular expression of the building and, in fact, heavily influences the site’s master planning. According to the lead architect Michael Hopkins, “we wanted to encourage communication between researchers and at the same time inspire younger students by letting them see the workings of the department. We interpreted the typical layout to achieve transparency right across the building so that the write-up areas, laboratories, group rooms and offices are all visibly linked across the width of the building.”

Addressing this need for unification and a comprehensive, programmatic connection between all faculty branches – pedagogical, technical, research and administrative – at the core of the central atrium is a large conference room and auditorium that boasts multi-functionality.

Often hosting students during lectures, symposium for researchers and academic conferencing, Hopkins and Payette specified Figueras’ F48 and 5064 Minispace auditoriums seating to bring both a sense of uniformity (so as not to disrupt visual rhythms) while also provide a flexible and essential solution to the various users and uses of this dynamic faculty.

Recognised for this innovative approach to providing a functional and flexible design that will allow the faculty to grow and develop well into the future, the project has been awarded armfuls of America’s most prestigious architectural prizes. Designed to foster crossdisciplinary interaction, unite teachers, researchers and students, as well as forge a connection between today’s leading scientific minds and tomorrow’s pioneers, Princeton’s Frick Chemistry Laboratory – in the words of Payette – “replaces the nation’s oldest chemistry building and revitalizes the department.”

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Living On

Our Sustainability Mission At Living Edge, we know that it is our responsibility to champion not only the greatest in tomorrow’s educational best practice, but also to augment the role of sustainability in design to this end.

We believe in emphasising that it is incumbent upon all members of the design and education communities to reduce the environmental impact of our collective practice and products.

This is why at Living Edge we launched the LivingOn sustainability program – one through which we have been proud to measure and report on our carbon footprint since 2008. Through a sequence of carbon reduction and offsetting schemes, rigorous due diligence in partnering with only the most sustainable brands, and bringing into consideration the sustainable benefits of wholeof-life costing that takes into account the ongoing performance of design products post-installation, we have been able to achieve significant gains in environmental stewardship.

In the decade that has passed since reporting through LivingOn commenced, we have reduced our collective carbon footprint by seventy-seven per cent. In addition to this, we’re dedicated to celebrating the designers and manufacturers that make concerted efforts to minimise their mark on the environment through innovative approaches to design development.

Over eighty per cent of our catalogue meets the LivingOn criteria, meaning that it meets one or more of the following: carbon offsetting for emissions generated through freight; third party certification; sustainable manufacture; use of sustainably sourced or recyclable materials; and compatibility with recycling at the end of useful product life.

And, for us, that’s what LivingOn is all about – being the change we’d like to see live on in the world.

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Certifications While broad duty of care responsibilities for end users are at the heart of Living Edge’s work throughout Australia, we also focus upon assisting our clients specifying furniture for strong environmentallyconscious outcomes.

A large number of Living Edge products have received third party environmental certifications from Green Building Council Of Australia (GBCA), the United States Green Building Council (USGBC), and the WELL Building Institute more recently.

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The environmental certification schemes recognise the material composition of products, manufacturing processes, product stewardship, the manufacturer’s adherence to energy and waste minimisation and compliance to government pay award and safe work practice legislation.

These criteria are also assessed within the internationally recognised ISO 14001 Environmental Management System certification which a number of our local and international brands have achieved.

WELL Building Standard® is a performancebased system for measuring, certifying, and monitoring features of the built environment that impact human health and wellbeing, through air, water, nourishment, light, fitness, comfort, and mind.

An environmental rating system for buildings launched by the GBCA in 2003. Green Star rating tools help the property industry to reduce the environmental impact of buildings, improve the occupant health and productivity and achieve real cost savings.

An Australian developed system that uses life-cycle assessment to rate the ‘cradle to end-of-life-fate’ of eco-preferred products including green building materials and a wide range of other products and technologies and provides ‘Net Positive’ metrics for Carbon and Biodiversity.

The international standard that specifies requirements for an effective environmental management system (EMS). It provides a framework that an organization can follow, rather than establishing environmental performance requirements.

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design is a rating system devised by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) to evaluate the environmental performance of a building and encourage market transformation towards sustainable design.

The international standard that specifies requirements for a quality management system (QMS). Organizations use the standard to demonstrate the ability to consistently provide products and services that meet customer and regulatory requirements.

The Australasian Furnishing Research and Development Institute (AFRDI) certifies furniture, related manufactured products, components and materials recognised by the AFRDI Blue Tick to comply with standards in terms of performance, safety and quality.

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Contact Sydney

Ph: +61 2 9640 5600

Melbourne Ph: + 61 3 9009 3900

Brisbane

Ph: + 61 7 3137 2900

Perth

Ph: + 61 8 6466 7474

Enquires

education@livingedge.com.au

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livingedge.com.au

@livingedge

@livingedge

@livingedge

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Copyright Information Living Edge and the publisher hereby disclaim, to the full extent permitted by law, all liability, damages, costs and expenses whatsoever arising from or in connection with copy information or other material appearing in this publication, any negligence of the publisher, or any person’s actions in reliance thereon. Inclusion of any copy information or other material must not be taken as an endorsement by Living Edge. Views expressed by contributors are personal views and are not necessarily endorsed by Living Edge.

ÂŽLiving Edge is a trademark owned by Living Edge (Aust) Pty Ltd.

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