UNDER CONSTRUCTION Gerard Reinmuth
UTS BROADWAY DENTON CORKER MARSHALL
01. Computergenerated facade modelling 02. Mass modelling incisions are computationally programmed.
As the first major project commissioned to implement the University of Technology, Sydney’s (UTS) City Campus Masterplan, the UTS Broadway building carries a weight of expectation. In response to the special status of this campus-wide redevelopment project, UTS created one of the few open competitions in Sydney in recent years. Open competitions remain a contentious procurement method – derided for the random nature of participants and lack of possible collaboration with the client and applauded as the only anonymous way to uncover great talent in a level playing field. In Stage One of the competition for this project, a broad range of practices both in Sydney and beyond entered, which, rather surprisingly, yielded a fairly conservative shortlist featuring a number of well-known quantities. The reasons for this are many and complex, and were debated at the time of the shortlist announcement, such that it is perhaps worth noting via example that the recent Green Square Library competition uncovered two fledgling practices in the shortlist, one of which – Stewart Hollenstein – went on to win. Given the competition’s conventional shortlist, it was to the relief of many colleagues within the profession that the eventual winner was Australia’s Denton Corker Marshall (DCM) – unquestionably one of the country’s finest practices over the past three decades and yet one who has built precious little north of the Victorian border. The winning scheme was vintage DCM: a clear diagram, simple functional arrangements and a clear tectonic idea underpinning the formal expression. 01 2
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