Jury Citation
The Sidney Myer Asia Centre has a discreet presence on the University of Melbourne campus. As the companion bookend to the Ian Potter Museum by Nonda Katsalidis, it will, in time, form the edge of a new major forecourt entrance to the university.
Currently, it provides both a southern edge to the campus and an excellent solution to a brief which required tertiary teaching facilities to exist cooperatively within an established education/business group.
The building has an impressive and imposing street presence, while also enclosing a peaceful courtyard within the campus. It is a beautifully composed assembly of rectangular boxes, composed with great care and skill, which adopts a reverse palette to that of the Potter.
Inside, the building is remarkable for its near-monochromatic, yet opulent, palette. The planning is straightforward, with a sophisticated working of the spatial elements, and the lift core is expressed as a multistoreyed shaft that becomes a lightwell.
This is a confident work by a confident architect. It is all the more remarkable for the incorporation, within the building fabric and from the earliest planning stages, of a major sculpture by Akio Makigawa.
Images: Tony Miller
Credits
- Project
- Sidney Myer Asia Centre, University of Melbourne
- Design architect
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Robert Nation
- Project Team
- Jason Noble, Chemain Adams, Rose Ambrogio, Greg Blanch, Ken deSilva, Nicky Drobis, Michael Fazzino, Chris Godsell, John Hair, Daniel Heffernan, Mark Irving, Peter Johnson, Pat Jost, Simon Lauenstein, Bruce MacIsaac, Jeremy MacLeod, Ian Munro, Lorena Plan, Rebecca Shaw, Karen Sheezel, Shaun Schroter
- Consultants
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Acoustic consultant
Arup
Builder ProBuild
Building surveyor Philip Chun & Associates
Communications consultant Space Age Communications
Hydraulic, mechanical and electrical consultant Aurecon
Interior design Fender Katsalidis Architects
Landscape architect Tract Consultants
Project architect Joseph Paonessa
Project manager Ian Martin, University of Melbourne
Quantity surveyor Donald Cant Watts Corke
Sculptor Akio Makigawa
Services consultant Aurecon
Structural and civil consultant Arup
- Site Details
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Location
University of Melbourne,
Parkville,
Melbourne,
Vic,
Australia
- Project Details
-
Status
Built
