The building is designed to accommodate the university’s unique new degree, which equips students with both engineering and business skills. Our design meets both these needs, by providing a pitching space for business activity and maker studio, which embraces the ‘Maker Movement’ – a trend where discarded or broken goods are re-imagined and marketed.
The existing facility has been transformed with a gallery, technological wall, Honeycomb of Learning, maker studio, pitch space and labs, which encourage experimentation, partnerships and enterprise.
We have created a character and sense of home for this new community, by using materials akin with regional farm and shed buildings. The form and re-use of the existing frames symbolises home, complements the rural shed aesthetic and maximises the use of embodied energy.
This unique project illustrates the benefits of designing a curriculum and associated learning environment in parallel.
Bathurst, Australia
"The brief was clear that our building was to be a character in the story of our program – it was not simply to be the backdrop, but rather it should be an active participant in the learning process. There was a clear mandate to make this a 'next-generation' learning space...and to capture the full potential of a learning space that was free of the constraints of tradition".
Professor Euan Lindsay, Director CSU Engineering
Film
Showcasing the CSU Engineering Building
Process
The client’s vision of a differentiating ‘character’ inspired an innovative response. The design process explored how to accommodate and inspire the 50-person cohort.
