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RAIA Awards, RMIT Bundoora Building 220
Public Buildings Commendation
WOOD MARSH WITH PELS INNES NEILSON KOSLOFF
top East facade, looking up from a pond. above North end.
Building 220 at the Bundoora campus
of the Royal Melbourne Institute of
Technology has been designed to
provide academic facilities in an
architecturally iconic shell. The building
plan is an arc which sweeps from the
campus core across gentle grass slopes
towards a stand of 400-year-old red
gums. The basic concrete structure,
with a single vertical service core
topped by a plant room, is clad with
rock-textured concrete interruped with
circular windows and metal panels in
an exaggerated brick pattern interruped
by vertical windows. The floor plan has
many small offices and teaching rooms
aligned along external walls and
accessed from corridors located either
centrally or to one side.
Jury Verdict
In a very sophisticated architectural
solution that stands clearly on the site
without fuss, Wood Marsh and PINK
have responded to what could be seen
as a constricting brief with wit and
ingenuity. With the sweeping curve of
their building, they have acknowledged
the disparate surrounding buildings and
the significant landscape.
The convex & concave planes
embedded in solid masses at either end
result in a work of architecture as
sculpture in the landscape. This
anchored quality is reinforced by the
subtle raising of the underbelly of the
building as it sweeps down the hill. The
vibrant oversize brick pattern of the
Alucabond cladding is the sole
contender for a link to the existing red
brick campus buildings, yet the building
gives new life to the campus. The
architects have designed a building
which gives an overall impression of a
bold and simple unified concept with
great presence. It has become the new
face of the campus.
North-east corner.
Photography Tim Griffith
2 Treasury Place, Melbourne Design Architect Peter Elliott. Project Architect
Curnow Freiverts Glover. Project Manager,
Heritage Architect, Structural, Lift and Hydraulic
Engineers Building Services Agency. Owner
Department of Treasury and Finance. Tenant
Department of Education. Building Services
Umow Lai & Associates. Acoustics Watson Moss
Growcott. Quantity Surveyor Slattery Australia.
Contractors Kane Constructions (facade and
roof), Hooker Cockram (interiors).