ASPECT and the Australian campus
Date: 12月 07, 2023
Category: Insights
Kambri Precinct, Australian National University
This thinking is an extension of what we try to achieve in urban design more broadly – repairing and reforging connections between the public realm and the city at large. With the campus, we constantly seek better connections between knowledge and the public, between academic and on-campus life, against a background of changing educational and cultural context:
Post-COVID pedagogy – universities now connect with students and the community in new ways.
The multi-institution campus – the university is often co-located with private and public partners, and the campus must enable this collaboration.
Sustainability – landscapes must be designed to change with the climate, and active and public transport connections must be accessible and finely-tuned.
Porosity – the modern campus is open to its city, and vice versa.
A multiplicity of experiences – campuses are now places to live, as well as work, and that life requires ways to socialise, entertain, and recreate.
Connection to Country – a focus on reconciliation as an ethical imperative has made campuses sites of interpretation and storytelling, where First Nations stories and narratives can be unearthed and given physical form.
Post-COVID pedagogy – universities now connect with students and the community in new ways.
The multi-institution campus – the university is often co-located with private and public partners, and the campus must enable this collaboration.
Sustainability – landscapes must be designed to change with the climate, and active and public transport connections must be accessible and finely-tuned.
Porosity – the modern campus is open to its city, and vice versa.
A multiplicity of experiences – campuses are now places to live, as well as work, and that life requires ways to socialise, entertain, and recreate.
Connection to Country – a focus on reconciliation as an ethical imperative has made campuses sites of interpretation and storytelling, where First Nations stories and narratives can be unearthed and given physical form.
University of Technology Sydney Alumni Green
UTS Alumni Green. Photograph by Florian Groehn
Macquarie University Central Courtyard Precinct
The courtyard campus
Macquarie University Central Courtyard Precinct
Macquarie University Central Courtyard Precinct – Sydney
Constituting a major revision of the idea of the campus itself, this project cracked open a cloistered campus and opened it to both the natural landscape and the suburban fabric. ASPECT Studios Senior Associate Natalie Burnuetz said the focus was on “really connecting to a broader precinct,” by opening the interior of the university to its surrounds, complementing the development of a nearby train station and retail centre.
Boola Katijin, Murdoch University
The bush campus
Boola Katijin, Murdoch University – Perth, with Lyons Architects, with Officer Woods, The Fulcrum Agency and Silver Thomas Hanley
This project saw the architecture of the new building and the landscape working in tandem to reinforce a uniquely Western Australian “bush campus,” where the endemic landscape character is celebrated as an integral component of the campus identity, experience, and structure.
The project respects the principles established in the original campus design, which was conceived by preeminent landscape architect Marion Blackwell and architect Gus Ferguson. As ASPECT Studios’ Studio Director Michael Rowlands explained, Blackwell insisted that Murdoch should depart from a European tradition of campus landscape expression and reflect a uniquely local context and be “about Perth and Perth landscapes.”
The project respects the principles established in the original campus design, which was conceived by preeminent landscape architect Marion Blackwell and architect Gus Ferguson. As ASPECT Studios’ Studio Director Michael Rowlands explained, Blackwell insisted that Murdoch should depart from a European tradition of campus landscape expression and reflect a uniquely local context and be “about Perth and Perth landscapes.”
Edith Cowan University
The city campus
Edith Cowan University – Perth
By some measures the largest education project currently being undertaken in Australia, the development of Edith Cowan University’s reflects the changing understanding of what the campus and the city can contribute to one another. Positioned at the primary junction between Perth’s CBD and the cultural and entertainment centre of Northbridge, it is envisaged that the vertical campus will be a much needed activator to enliven the city centre. Working within the constraints of a vertical campus arrangement a landscape strategy informed by Richard Walley’s (whadjuk noongar) cultural narrative infused throughout the architecture to create breakout spaces, informal learning and wellness gardens throughout.
Located in close proximity to other urban regeneration projects, like Elizabeth Quay and Yagan Square, the new campus will support a community of over 11,000 students and staff.
Located in close proximity to other urban regeneration projects, like Elizabeth Quay and Yagan Square, the new campus will support a community of over 11,000 students and staff.
University of Melbourne Student Precinct – Melbourne, with Lyons, Koning Eizenberg Architects, Breathe Architecture, NMBW Architecture Studio, Greenaway Architects, Glas Urban, Architects EAT
The new Student Precinct has transformed the on-campus student experience at the University of Melbourne by delivering a collection of sophisticated indoor and outdoor spaces that attend to the needs of a diverse student body.
