Melbourne architects Lyon have completed this medical school for the University of Tasmania with a concrete façade punctuated by flowing arches and slanted windows.
The Menzies Institute houses a range of laboratories, accommodation and medical facilities.
The building is entered through a formal archway on the street corner that leads into a glazed atrium.
A steel stairwell at the heart of the building connects all the main spaces and acts as communal meeting area for staff and students.
Here's some more from the architects:
University of Tasmania - Medical Science 1 (Menzies Institute & UTas School of Medicine) Corner Liverpool and Campbell Streets, Hobart, Tasmania
The University of Tasmania’s School of Medicine and the Menzies Research Institute bring together, in Medical Science 1 (MS1), the aspiration to deliver leading edge world-class laboratories, clinical research and medical training facilities.
Initially called the ‘Co-location project’, the conceptual basis for the project was to create a synergistic environment for these once separated facets of the University.
At the core of the concept is the creation of a ‘new culture’, reinforced in the building’s image and its social and functional planning.
As a public building of the city, it invites the public participation of the street through its corner entry; large transparent steel windows and glazed atrium space which is shaped by an organic steel formed structure separating MS1 and the existing heritage building (Hollydene House).
The building recognises its role, as a city landmark.
On one corner marking Liverpool and Campbell Streets, whilst, on the opposite side, creating a dialogue with the landscape of the Domain and the vehicular movement of the Brooker Highway.
Feature corner windows formed in steel punctuate this relationship and imply a layered façade comprising of steel and concrete.
The image of the building, expressed through its steel framed fenestration, is derived, abstractly from the surrounding mountain ranges and Derwent River.
The curvilinear form of the building is a reference to the nonexistent Park Rivulet which was influential in shaping the edge of the city grid, upon which MS1 is tied.
The shaped steel windows of the upper levels provide the occupants with a means to see the spectacular landscape with new emphasis.
On the street, the steel lined window ‘arch’ forms reference an already established local typology whilst abstractly symbolising the mountains that background Hobart city.
The resolution of functional planning was determined by the differing needs of the PC2 laboratory and teaching facilities.
The PC2 Laboratory, with its intensive reliance on services including fume exhausts, was best suited at the top of the building (Level 5), where as the teaching facilities were more suited to the lower levels (Levels 1&2), due to circulation loads on lifts and stairs.
Staff accommodation was located between, on Levels 3 & 4. Connecting these spaces together, the central steel stair is designed as the feature and the heart of the building, offering the possibility for social interaction to staff, students and researchers.
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See also:
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| Rolex Learning Centre by SANAA |
Nestlé Building by Rojkind Arquitectos |
Villa Vauban extension by Philippe Schmit |
Salvador Dali meets computer graphics !
Interesting
PoMo-ed Zaha.
is that hadid’s ‘phaeno’ from wolfsburg sliced into a cube?
what about the building skin, can somebody explain that please,..
a beautiful project.
gorgeously executed interior and adorely created environment inside the building. a superb skin that will last many more years than the glass and steel facade.
well done to the team.
The decorative screen with the undulations taking their clue from the distant topography takes a little getting use to but enlivens a rather stogy context. I would like to see an exterior wall section to see how it’s built.
we are facade artists… all our buildings look like cad conceptions. Is it the tools we use to design or the materials we use to build.. and is the trend reversible??
The problem with Australian architects, they are always ripping of idea from the Star-chitect!
interior looks like in some spaceship, concrete is quite amazing, feels really light
The spandex like behaviour of the concrete has a lively effect…the interior seems cluttered in some shots but overall be building seems very engaging. Woop Woop Soceroos!
Not such a fan of the direct mapping of the view in the facade – perhaps more dynamic registration of the interior parti or vectors of access, or even pure abstraction – but the overall effect of the facade itself is excellent. It’s solid without being heavy, and is playful. Great interiors as well, particularly the material choices and the way the facade condition is read inside-out. Really nice project.
maybe i’m missing something but why are the structural columns the same colour as the shifting facade? surely you’d want to disguise them because they break the illusion that the exterior of the building is shifting around
don’t like the interiors either, so heavy
design is perfect i like it but i think corner wich on crossroad is uncomfortabele to buses
I really love this. Some of the interiours are a bit seventies-ish but hey, a lab….. Good and clean work!
• Could anyone explain the idea or concept behind the façade please; does it have a function?
I do not understand what the concept is ?
haw did u achieve this building form ?
The interiors are more successful than the exterior. It already looks dated from the outside. shocking throwback to brutalism.
Besides mountains line – for me it alludes to the bone structure – of course it is an echo, there is more geometry in the facade, but it’s nice that the character of the building is shown that way. I think it is an important thing in architecture, one that some of the creators don’t remember.
I saw this building in ‘the flesh’ (so to speak) and at the time I dismissed it as being an older building – not many buildings in Hobart are ‘new’ to say the least. The exposed aggregate concrete and 70-80′s-esque facade didn’t draw my attention.
@juice major: please don’t ever use the term ‘Starchi-tect’ again. It is a horrible label suggesting that architects are rock-stars or similar. They are not.
@ Chris – totally agree – it alreadylooks like a 60s building requiring an update.
In the end it’s still just a box…