The new Central Institute of Technology building on Aberdeen Street in Perth, to be officially opened this week, has been designed to become the centrepiece and “social heart” of the city‟s training precinct. The $62million 11,000 m2 building presents a striking, colourful, angular façade and grand entrance, and features state of the art teaching and learning facilities, flexible research spaces and a library.
The project brings together at the Northbridge site teaching programs for architectural, engineering and beauty technicians that were previously located on CIT campuses at Leederville, Subiaco and Mount Lawley. The building was designed by Melbourne-based architects Lyons, in partnership with Perth company T&Z.
Lyons director, Neil Appleton says a key element of the design brief was to connect the existing buildings on Aberdeen Street and the 1970s landscape to give the urban space a new focus.
“The idea of the social heart as a connecting device was a central design driver. We moved the library out of the basement across the road and next to the foyer in the new building, making it a centre-piece, clearly defining Central as a leading training institution committed to its city location,” Mr Appleton said.
Visually the building design was influenced by references to Western Australia‟s indigenous natural environment and the local mining industry – both elements of the building‟s educational function.
“The social heart was conceived as an excavation along the Aberdeen Street façade, like a gigantic manmade cave. Structural columns of industrial-scale blackened pipe prop the overhanging building a glazed wall, reflecting further mining references. Colour palette, materials and visual references throughout the building reflect elements such as red desert termite mounds, black and white striped shadows, turtle shells, blackened sticks, precious metals, stratified open cut mines and metal mining bridges. The interior was designed to operate as a teaching resource to the building and engineering students, who are able to view directly some of the construction elements that form the building,” Mr Appleton said.
The building also incorporates a number of passive and engineering sustainability initiatives.
The completion of the new CIT building further advances the establishment of the Knowledge Industry Precinct at Northbridge and the development of the campus as a unified and vibrant urban entity linked directly to Perth‟s civic heart.
“As well as creating a campus feel in an urban environment, the new building will give students and the local community a great space to relax, eat and socialise”, Mr Appleton said.
