Woods Bagot has created a design for a new Melbourne Business School in Australia. Made for one of the country's best business schools, the project will be adjacent to the current Melbourne Business School campus at 200 Leicester Street. Once completed, 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 proposal 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, socializing and work.
Leading the design is Woods Bagot principal and design leader Bruno Mendes, whose 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," Mendes said.
"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," said 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. Pre-application presentations and site visits were held with the City of Melbourne, the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning and the Office of the Victorian Government Architects, and an information session for nearby residents was held in May.
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