7
Monash University’s Clayton campus
is a story much less of student revolt
than sustained evolution. Melbourne’s
new population epicentre 25 kilometres
to the CBD’s south-east, the 100 hectare
paddock of diesel and dust, circa
1962 has been digested into the city’s
sprawl, not as featureless ‘same old’ but
cosmopolitan campus distinguished
by tracts of stellar landscape and
clusters of heady architecture.
Previous page, left and above:
The dramatic north and north-east
elevation of Logan Hall with soon to
be installed retail spaces planned for
the building’s undercroft.
PROJECT
Monash University
Halls of Residence
PRINCIPAL GLAZING
Viridian SolTech™
Viridan EnergyTech™
Viridian Sunergy™
TEXT, IMAGES & FILM
Peter & Jenny Hyatt
W
ith more than 20,000 students on this single campus
alone, the university shows no signs of relaxing
its ambition to perform as a global player. And here
inclusiveness, rather than the cellular silo variety rules.
At first glance it might appear old-fashioned to create
student housing in the Age of the Internet and on-line
education and yet this counter-intuitive approach has been
quickly adopted. As a substantial bonus, on-site living
promises a livelier learning environment than blistering
download speeds. This cultural attitude to align learning
with living is central to a long-term strategy above and
beyond cyberspace. In a relative eye-blink Monash
University can now accommodate an additional 1,000
students on campus.
Successive Vice-Chancellors with an interest in the natural
and built environment have contributed to the dynamic,
uplifting and contemplative. Student housing is a newer
chapter and an imperative commercial consideration in the
age of shrinking government funding.