Urban Design, Education, Interior Architecture, Teaching & Learning Spaces

UTS Blackfriars Design Competition

Our vision for the BPRB was to create a new industry hub that is both innovative and connected to the urban fabric in which it sits. As a leader in the community, this new building could further set UTS apart as a benchmark for connected, progressive and global Universities.

We developed a response to this through a careful reading of the site’s scale, form, materiality and spatial qualities. The design process was one of research and exploration that aimed to:

Enhance…. and extend a significant piece of 19th century Sydney urban fabric.
Consolidate…. by knitting the site together.
Explore…. utilising traditional materials in a contemporary manner to reflect the homogeneous materiality and form.
Refines…. our practices interest in transferring domestic material palettes into a larger scale project and;
Transforms…. the generic “research” building into one of particular, specific and memorable spaces.

Heritage Issues

The new Blackfriars Precinct Research Building (BPRB) posed a challenge to integrate a 21st century building into what is a very cohesive, finely grained and historic educational site. The site is significant as a complete city block of 19th century buildings with a shared palette and fine grain articulated forms.

NTU | Singapore | Learning Hub (The Arc) Opening

The Arc is a cutting-edge building that ‘breathes’. Its open curves, translucency and permeability create a civic gesture that forms a vibrant campus heart, promoting active social learning. The Arc embraces new performative design technologies that allowed us to fine-tune the design to work passively with the tropical climate of Singapore.

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QUT CIP2 Published on Architecture AU Website

KIRK & Hassell's joint design for the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) CIP2, Kelvin Grove Campus is honoured to have been published on ArchitectureAU Website, in the feature Creative Industries Precinct, QUT written by Michael Keniger