Studio 10

Architecture as Memory IV:
Student Centre @ Fishermans Bend Campus

Hans van Rijnberk

Studio Description

In 2016, the Victorian Government purchased the General Motors Holden (GMH) factory in the heart of Fishermans Bend. The 37.7 Ha site has played an influential role in driving the economic success of Melbourne for many decades and the Victorian Government is committed to rejuvenate this unique landholding and to become Australia’s new home for design, engineering and technology. In December 2017 the University of Melbourne purchased approximately 7 hectares of the GMH site as part of the MSE 2025 Strategy for deep and sustainable engagement with industry and external stakeholders. This new Engineering campus will accomodate around a 1000 students and academics. The unique location will allow the university to undertake large scale research and innovation that can’t be accommodated on the Parkville campus, such as wind and water tunnels, and electric vehicle and engine propulsion testing. Envisioned as a ‘superincubator’, the new campus will also become a place that provides an environment for industry to innovate and grow through connection to research and education and an opportunity for students to access professional development.

However to make a successful campus it is critical to include facilities that allow for social connections between students and offer spaces for working and relaxing during and outside regular hours. The Parkville campus has been able to provide a student life through the Union House, sports facilities, cafes and soon the New Student Precinct. It is essential for the new campus to create possibilities for students to take time out, use their time on campus efficiently and be able to cross paths with others especially regarding its isolated position in Fishermans Bend and Melbourne.

Studio Outcome

The design task is focused on researching about, and then designing for how students make and use space in a new university campus environment (and its immediate surrounding area) in the form of a student facility. The planning and design is to adhere to adaptive re-use design principles, within a former industrial setting.

Students will be expected to step out of the familiar urban setting (such as the Parkville Campus) and rethink the student facility as a type to establish appropriate forms and materiality.

Studio Leader

HANS VAN RIJNBERK is a Dutch architect with experience in architecture and urban design in Europe and Australia. He studied architecture at the Technical University of Eindhoven and previously tutored at Utrecht University College. He is a senior urban designer at a private property development company in Melbourne and has been a sessional studio leader at the Melbourne School of Design for four years.

Readings & References

• Norberg-Schulz, C, Genius Loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture, Rizzoli, NY NY.
• Corboz, A , Le territoire comme palimpseste, Diogène Magazine, Jan-March 1983, p.14-35 (translated as ‘The Land as Palimpsest’ by Scott Walker)
• Cantacuzino, S., Re/Architecture: Old Buildings/New Uses. Thames and Hudson: London, 1989.
• Latham, D., Creative re-use of buildings vol. 1&2, Donhead: Shaftesbury, 2000.
• Bordage F. & Faure, F., The factories. Conversions for urban culture. TransEuropeHalles, Birkhäuser- Publishers for Architecture: Basel, 2002.

Schedule Thursdays 09:00-12:00 in Room 213; Thursdays 13:15-16:15 in Room 140
Travel Week 2

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