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Over three levels, it incorporates a basement/
theatre, administrative offices, numerous meeting
and classrooms and a vast library that un-scrolls
across two levels. Rather than merely meditative and
monastic voids, a series of mezzanine spaces and
crystalline edges divine a whole new attitude and
outlook to the olde-world view of academia.
J
THE MOMENT YOU
STEP INTO THE PORTAL
IT IMMEDIATELY PAYS
REFERENCE TO THAT
HISTORIC HEART OF
THE CAMPUS.
ohn Wardle Architects demonstrates
scrupulous care to ensure the firm’s design
narrative remains intact to create thrilling
volumes, airy staircases, masterful brickwork and
sublime glazing. The result of an international design
competition, its enduring modernity is testament
to emphasis placed on poetic function.
John Wardle,
Principal Architect
We worked closely with Viridian who delivered
amongst the largest units of Australian manufactured
double-glazing in this massive, suspended ‘ashlar’
front facade. We take that knowledge from the largest
projects down to the smallest in terms of attributes
and performance of glass.
John Wardle Architects principals John Wardle
and Stefan Mees discussed the project with Vision:
This project has an incredibly transparent,
chrysalis-like, quality.
The street elevation expression is exceptional.
JW: starts with the massive glass entry and the
It
way in which it aligns with the two points of the
western facade of the quadrangle building. The
moment you step into the portal it immediately
pays reference to that historic heart of the campus.
The massive façade along Domain Road is ashlar
in its composition referring to the irregular
geometrical composition of the Victorian-era
ashlar bluestone walls on campus and translated
as contemporary interpretation rendered in
glass and steel. The other interesting thing about
those multiple portal windows is that internally it
produced a series of vantage points rather than
one single view. The engagement here is much
more compartmentalized and it re-orders the
composition of the vast panorama of the domain.
SM: ne of the other interesting aspects of the
O
glazing is that we tilted the glass in one direction
or another so that they are not only fragmented,
but angled and that ends up altering the flat
reflection so that in some you catch trees across
the road and in others the sky.