Advanced Technologies Centre an der Swinburne University eröffnet

ATC Opens for Business

The architecturally striking ‘see-through’ Advanced Technologies Centre (ATC) is now open for research and teaching at Swinburne University of Technology’s Hawthorn campus.

Positioned to showcase the university to the community, the ATC is Swinburne’s new 'front door' on Burwood Road and, built at a cost of $140 million, represents the single largest investment in the university’s 100 year history.

Researchers from a mix of disciplines have moved in and will be conducting their work behind transparent walls. According to Dr Andrew Smith, Director of Swinburne’s Facilities and Services Group, this approach was taken to ensure that the university’s intensely technological endeavours were on show and not hidden in a back lot.

“It is about the university inviting the public to gaze in and participate for a moment in Swinburne’s long-standing love affair with the technology needs of industrial and post-industrial societies,” he said.

The street frontage of the ATC is dominated by a massive Smart Structures Laboratory which houses equipment that can apply extreme loads to buildings. Here, as scientists and engineers test the construction materials of the future, the public and passing traffic can watch.

Alongside the laboratory are social and teaching spaces, including a 500 seat lecture theatre that will also be used to host public forums and community events. Behind the building’s three-storey front section are two towers, each 10 storeys high. One is dedicated to research and the other is reserved for the education of tertiary, postgraduate and TAFE students.

Interlinking the cluster of buildings is a series of hanging bridges, cobbled alleyways and landscaped lanes that give the feel of inner city Melbourne.

“Research and teaching activities have been growing so quickly that the university needed a significant investment in space,” Dr Smith said. “But we wanted to do it in a way that captured what Swinburne is all about.”

Since land is at a premium at Swinburne’s Hawthorn campus, the building had to maximise the available space within a 2000 square metre footprint. The final design, developed by Melbourne-based H2o architects, delivered a 20 per cent increase in campus size.

Given that so many of Swinburne’s research collaborations deal with the development of more eco-efficient technology, the university also opted for a design that embodied sustainability principles.

“One of the other features of the building is its five-star rating from the Green Building Council of Australia – the first education building in the country to have achieved this level of environmental sustainability,” Dr Smith said.

Sustainability initiatives include the use of recycled materials, rainwater capture, lighting that adjusts in response to natural daylight levels and the building’s management system which, through its link to the Bureau of Meteorology, can predict changes in weather. The centre’s two massive towers are also sheathed in an eye-catching facade that provides an insulating thermal mass.

Quelle: Swinburne University of Technology, Alumni & Development, Crystal Ladiges, 23. Februar 2011