Macquarie University’s new Engineering Innovation Building is substantially complete, with final equipment and finishing touches underway. When it opens, the building will be home to the university’s physics, astronomy and engineering studies.
Designed by Woods Bagot, with strategic briefing input from ERA-co – a sister company within the 7C Network – the project has involved the adaptive reuse of an existing brick building at 9 Wally’s Walk with new dry labs, offices and lower-intensity learning spaces. To the east, a new purpose-built wing with a triangular-patterned metal and glazed facade has been designed to house high-service engineering workshops, heavy machinery and the Integration Hall for Australian Astronomical Optics – a three-storey, crane-equipped laboratory where astronomical instrumentation can be assembled and tested in total darkness.
According to a communique from Woods Bagot, a light-filled “urban room” connects the two wings, offering a flexible space where students can gather, work or test fabrications, or where presentations, competitions, showcases or other evening and weekend events can take place.
“We knew that we wanted to include viewing platforms in the communal space,” said Woods Bagot associate principal Alissandra Johnston. “It’s always going to serve its primary purpose as a university, but we were thinking about how the space would transform for exhibition nights or as a viewing platform for the robot wars that happen on campus. So we included bridge links that are really open, with three-storey voids that allow students across each level to watch the action from the mezzanines above.”
The ground plane is likewise designed with performative, flexible spaces that engage the public. One of these, the makerspace, is a corner-located, double-height workshop that places student teams and their work on display. Further along, engineering teams’ year-long projects are accommodated in a series of bays with tilt-up glass facades, described by Woods Bagot’s communique as “miniature storefronts of ideas in progress.”
Johnston commented, “We thought about the building as a series of stages, platforms for different modes of learning. You walk in and immediately understand how adaptable it is. Every space works hard, every volume is connected, and you can see activity happening everywhere.”
“The whole building is designed to break down hierarchy,” she said. “There isn’t a single traditional lecture theatre. Instead, labs, studios and informal spaces overlap, so students and staff naturally cross paths. You can step out of a lab, grab a cup of tea, and have a spontaneous conversation that becomes part of the learning.”
Woods Bagot director and global sector leader for education Sarah Ball commented that the team’s design has “shape[d] a facility that deepens the student experience and reinforces campus identity.”
“The outcome for Macquarie University’s Engineering and AAO building exemplifies how thoughtfully designed spaces can engage, inspire and actively support a community of learners,” she said.
The facility is scheduled to welcome students in semester one next year.
Source: Architecture - architectureau
