Multiplex Delivers $225M Learning Space to Australia’s Monash U

By Keith Loria, Contributing Editor

Learning and Teaching Building at Monash University

Multiplex has completed the Learning and Teaching Building at Monash University, a new $225 million education property in Clayton, Australia.

“We are delighted to continue our collaboration with Monash University with the delivery of the Learning and Teaching Building, which will provide students with truly progressive and contemporary learning spaces,” Graham Cottam, Multiplex’s regional managing director, said in a prepared release.

The property consists of a state of the art four-level building and a new regional transport interchange. Designed by John Wardle Architects, the building includes approximately 314,600 square feet of innovative learning spaces, a contemporary staff workspace and also offers a new front-door experience for all visitors.

Part of the design includes a space called “The Kiln,” which boasts a series of large brick-clad areas suspended above ground level, allowing students to occupy them underneath, imitating an amplified conversation pit.

The regional transport interchange will allow the tens of thousands of people who visit the campus daily to have an easier time getting to and from the property by bus and other transportation measures. Awning structures provide patrons with shelter, while complimenting the varying context of the Learning and Teaching Building façade screens and landscape features.

Construction on the project was finished ahead of schedule, with the building ready to be utilized by students for the 2018 academic year.

A Busy Year

Multiplex has had a strong association with Monash University in the past. In 2017, it completed the school’s $145 million student accommodation precinct comprising four new residential buildings, which provided a total of more than 1,000 studio apartments, with associated retail and student informal learning spaces.

The contractor has also been responsible for delivering some of the most high-profile and technically advanced education facilities in Victoria, including the $200 million Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), Swanston Academic Building in Melbourne’s CBD and the $100 million Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning Building (FABP) in Parkville.

In October, Multiplex was selected by OSK Property to deliver the first stage of its iconic $2.8 billion Melbourne Square development in Melbourne, Australia. Six months ago, Multiplex said it would develop a $64.8 million (AUD $81 million) world-class biomedical learning and teaching building for Australia’s Monash University at its Clayton campus in Victoria.

Image courtesy of Multiplex