Jury citation
Housing general teaching and study areas, Boola Katitjin sets out to create a new face for Murdoch University. In addition to providing a much-needed connection between the newly established southern arrival point and the spiritual heart of the campus, Bush Court, the building also aims to create an equitable path of travel across the 13 vertical metres between them. With sustainability front and centre of the design, this building straddles the two levels with the feel of an oversized timber warehouse for learning.
Designed to embrace the often-harsh Perth climate and also protect from it, Boola Katitjin offers a generous covered space for open-air ceremonial events that were not possible before now. On the building’s inviting northern facade, modular bays are clearly evidenced through the expressed CLT structure. This structure, which gives the building a warm, barn-like feel, reduces the project’s overall embodied carbon by 55 percent compared to equivalent concrete buildings. Informal student areas use a mixed-mode ventilation system (with natural ventilation used most of the time), and the massive gable roof incorporates industrial-scale renewable energy production via a 450-kilowatt solar system. Combined with low-energy systems, these measures have reduced the building’s operational energy footprint by approximately 90 percent (compared to a reference building) and gained it 6-Star Green Star certification.
Boola Katitjin tests some original ideas in environmental and social sustainability; it will be interesting to see how staff and students respond to and interact with these in the years to come.
Boola Katitjin is located in Murdoch, Western Australia on Whadjuk Country and was reviewed by Simon Pendal in Architecture Australia September/October 2023.
Project credits
Architect: Lyons with Silver Thomas Hanley, The Fulcrum Agency and Officer Woods Architects; Builder: Multiplex; Structural and civil engineer: Aurecon; Services consultant: NDY ; Landscape consultant: Aspect Studios; Facade engineer: Inhabit; Building surveyor: Resolve Group; Disability access: O’Brien Harrop; Waste management: Encycle; Signage and wayfinding: Buro North; Project manager: DCWC; Cost consultant: RLB; Town planner: Planning Solutions; Photographer Lyons
