Following the winning design competition, KIRK has completed documentation of the University of the Sunshine Coast (USC) Moreton Bay Stage Two Campus and set to begin construction in April 2022. KIRK’s winning design competition proposal provides three new buildings to the University Campus, and includes new Teaching and Research facilities, Student Hubs & Breakout Zones, Silent Study, Workspaces, Recording Studio, Kiosk, Indoor Sports Court, Gym, Sports & Nutrition Labs, Non-Destructive Testing Labs, Clinics and Carparking. The project provides state of the art facilitates to support this leading education institution in its continued quest for excellence.
KIRK’s vision for the new USC Moreton Bay Campus Expansion is an exciting and transformative opportunity not just for the university but the Moreton Bay community. KIRK took the opportunity to develop the design for USC as a young university not constrained by tradition or old ways.
The Campus Expansion holds a key role in the development, enhancement, and extension of the built ‘Knowledge Spine,’ as one of the dominant major master planning strategies for the campus. The Stage 2 (and Stage 3) buildings will provide an activating frontage to the ‘Knowledge Spine’ including public spaces, key retail/cafes, and interactive frontages. The buildings development was considered from concept design to expand across the site, increasing footprint while reducing height and scale, providing commercial flexibility and future proofing.
USC’s new Campus Expansion needed to be completed to a tight deadline to meet the briefed operational date of Semester 1, 2023. To meet this challenge, the design accommodated mass engineered timber fabrication (replacing the slow construction process of concrete). It is the first university building to utilise CLT as the primary perimeter vertical structure. This unique structure created column free useable floor area, with the added benefit of increased solid façade, there by providing a very efficient building envelope. The resulting effect of exposed timber structure, focused teaching and research floor plates, punctuated by light filled atriums and generous windows produces a completely new typology for the university. The innovative structural solution was the result of teamwork between engineers and architects from KIRK’s prototype office tower, the NIOA Timber Tower, which was building in only seven months.
A highly flexible, zinc clad enclosure is shaped by the different teaching and research spaces. In its simplicity, the exposed timber architecture juxtaposes the complexity of learning and research conducted within its walls. USC’s new buildings promote transparency through open & legible entrances and industry ‘hub’ facilities at the ground plane, connecting with the landscaped ‘knowledge spine’ to showcase USC’s growing and active campus. These flexible facilities provide a plethora of potential uses for private (internal) and public (external) interactions. These key connections a driven by inclusive and accessible design, as it is crucial to provide active learning communities, where cross-disciplinary and social interaction enhances the USC experience. Harnessing the evolving digital landscape of Millennial social habits and social occasioning are driving new opportunities to socialise with like-minded people. The Campus Expansion extends the social activity of the ‘Knowledge Spine’ within the covered enclosures to accommodate social hubs and spaces for students and the extended university community.
After hours activation of the campus and facilities has been considered to extend the daily life of the campus and cater for the changing needs of students and the community. Uses of a University campus beyond pure study and research are reinforced by the newly designed built environment to help create a gravity of uses and reasons to visit the expanding campus, not just for students and staff, but for the community.
