Location Deakin University, Burwood Campus, Burwood VIC
Project Completion 2008
Project Size 17,400m2
Project Description The Deakin University International Centre & Business Buildings (ICBB) form an iconic gateway at Deakin University’s new Elgar Road campus in Melbourne’s east, housing International and Business Studies relocated from the university’s former Toorak campus. The project can be seen as the ‘Holy Grail’ for sustainable institutional facilities, with large, flexible floor plates designed to be adapted for an indeterminate future in education.
The twin, low-rise buildings are joined at the first floor, and accessed from a central pedestrian street, connecting the main street frontage on Elgar Road to a future bridge link between the east and west halves of the campus and crossing Gardiners Creek. The north building is the International Centre and the south, the Business Building. Cafes, lecture theatre, foyers and reception areas create a dynamic street environment at ground floor.
Hard-faced industrial materials, including a prefabricated patterned aluminium skin over precast concrete panels, are complemented by the natural qualities of timber louvres, timber panelling and bricks recycled from buildings demolished on the site prior to the works. Materials were selected to respond to the surrounding suburban and natural environment. The distinctive curved forms invest the structures with a landmark and iconic status within their surrounds, reflecting their importance as the first buildings to be constructed on the western side of the new campus.
The ICBB project succeeds in advancing the themes of iconic aesthetic, an embracing learning environment, ecologically sustainable design methods and building integration with context, as well as achieving the primary brief objective: practicality and flexibility to accommodate Deakin’s needs now and in the future.
