Deakin University, Building J

Building J at Deakin University’s Burwood Campus is designed to accommodate the Facility of Health and Behavioural Sciences and was the second stage of construction following the first five buildings at the heart of the University. The building forms a linear edge to the western boundary of the site, overlooking sports fields. The wall effect retains the built fabric of the campus as well as a two-storey level change on the site. A two-level bridge links this building with existing buildings on the campus via an atrium.

This building is one hundred metres long and five storeys high sited parallel to the main vehicular access point to the campus. The University is located in the middle of the vast post-war subdivision in the eastern suburbs, adjacent to the Burwood Highway with high volumes of traffic travelling at speed. Building J within this context and can be read from a car or by a pedestrian with equal relevance.

The main façade has been broken into three distinct forms all with a monochromatic palette and each form has been detailed to express a finer grain of texture with different fenestration patterns. These combine architecturally to act graphically as a billboard from a distance and surface up close. Two steel spiral stairs work as bookends.

The atrium space has a three-dimensional quality that provides drama and orientation. A deliberate organisation of a tight program arranges spaces so that corridors have, within a very fundamental structural frame, some shift away from the banal.