Well-known architecture firm Woods Bagot has revealed images for the new campus of Melbourne Business School in Australia, which will sit adjacent to the current premises at 200 Leicester Street. Upon completion, it will become the new address for the school as well as related activities in graduate business and economics education at the University of Melbourne. The project aims to build a new campus in the heart of Melbourne’s emerging knowledge district.
Designed to bring together innovation, education and industry, the new Melbourne Business School is located within three overlapping knowledge precincts: The University of Melbourne’s Grattan South precinct, The City of Melbourne’s City North Innovation District, and The Victorian Government’s Parkville National Employment and Innovation Cluster. Focusing on collaboration and sustainability, the proposal includes a 6 Green Star building with multipurpose spaces that create a hub for teaching, research, socialising and work.
Woods Bagot principal Bruno Mendes is the design leader on the project. The team took inspiration from the surrounding suburb’s history and character defined by gardens, laneways and architecture. “It’s a design that celebrates both the local area and the energy within the school. The characteristic elements of Carlton inform the stacked layers of the building, where each urban condition relates to the required program for the new business school,” says Mendes.
“The area around Melbourne Business School has been earmarked as an emerging innovation district, and we hope to play a key role in bringing that to life,” shares professor Ian Harper, Dean of Melbourne Business School. “We are currently speaking to residents and nearby businesses about our proposal to build a new campus adjacent to the existing building on Leicester Street, where we have operated for more than 30 years. Our vision is that the new building will become a central location that strengthens relationships between local and international leaders, thinkers, their organisations and communities.”
The project team was appointed to develop the planning proposal including expertise from Woods Bagot, Contour Town Planning and Bryce Raworth.
