Monash University Woodside Building for Technology and Design

The Woodside Building for Technology and Design is a transformational learning and teaching building for Melbourne’s Monash University within the native landscape of their Clayton Campus. A transdisciplinary facility for the Faculties of Engineering and Information Technology, it initiates new models of learning alongside academic research and administration with industry-related enterprise, while simultaneously integrating precedent setting environmental innovation. Amongst the largest Passivhaus certified education buildings in the world, it establishes the foundation for Monash to achieve net carbon zero by 2030, while simultaneously initiating a pilot of international leadership in learning environments. With immersive and interactive technology throughout, Woodside combines large-format, expert-led adaptable teaching spaces with advanced manufacturing laboratories for students and researchers to embrace innovation, design and cutting-edge technology for the development of new solutions in sustainable energy. All functional programmes within the 19,800m2 building are resolved in systems of spatial volumes which aggregate while being flexible and adaptable. They are ordered within an expressive rose-red intumescent painted structural frame that organises all activities vertically and horizontally within a tripartite geometry of varying spans (12m, 24m and 6m), concurrently accommodating the functions of laboratories, teaching and collaboration. The academic and research levels above are arranged in linear clusters within 24m wide trusses with a two-storey top lit atrium providing an interconnected series of team-based workplaces. The three linear bands are separated by circulation spines along the length, interspersed with informal spaces that situate stairs within interconnecting voids and break-out spaces looking into tree canopies. The building’s address to the south occurs through a four-storey glazed atrium with a tiered open theatre that unites all levels of teaching while looking back towards the campus across the native Ironbark Eucalypts. The 120m long x 48m wide building is bisected by a five-storey exhibition atrium linking the Engineering Precinct to the new Campus Green within the Innovation and Industry Precinct. The volumetric composition of the programme pursues a culture of inclusivity and interaction through visibility and spatial variety. Environmental services are not based in efficiency but effectiveness. The exposed reticulation of services is systematic, aligned to the frame and modular, becoming a surface or element of both performance and expression. The materiality, detail and tonality are performative and derive not only from environmental response, but towards a sensitivity to the indigenous landscape. The dark grey louvres allude to the striation of the black trunks of the Ironbarks, while the ‘Rose Gum’ red louvres that describe the circulation, affiliate to the thin stamens of Gumnut flowers. The east-west orientation of the building intently embraces sunlight – reflected from deep vertical louvre blades or baffled skylights - to illuminate and enliven the interior and activate the public realm interfaces throughout different times of the day. The facades capture light and reflect within, while deeply shading. The building intends for Monash to impart a global impact in academic and learning excellence in concurrence to environmental leadership, and industry partnerships into campus, students and academic staff with a deep commitment to encouraging the imperative of the social.