Design Hub
The Design Hub, viewed from Swanston Street. Courtesy: Sean Godsell Architects.
The Design Hub is featured in the “Sustainability at RMIT” poster series. For more information on the Design Hub’s environmentally sustainable design features, download a copy of the poster (PDF,398KB).
- Design Hub vision
- Design Hub participants
- Location
- Architectural features
- Project update
- Timeline
- Consultants
- News
- build design capability to develop new and improved practices, techniques and tools for industry
- raise awareness and disseminate use of design in industry - through exhibitions, events and publications
- develop new products, services and constructed environments
- transform established industries and grow new industries by developing design capability to increase the range of products and services
- School of Architecture and Design
- A number of specialist design related research groups, including Platform Technologies Research Institute, Spatial Information Architecture Laboratory (SIAL) and Virtual Reality Centre
- Two basement levels and eight levels above the street
- A double-skin façade with a unique external skin that incorporates glazing disks. The disks in the outer façade have the capacity to be fitted with photovoltaic collectors for harnessing solar power
- Rain water harvesting
- Monitoring and public display of energy consumption
- Internal waste management system
- Open-plan, research warehouse spaces
- Exhibition spaces
- Design archive housing permanent collections
- 180-seat lecture theatre and seminar rooms
- 200-seat multi-purpose facility
- Rooftop seminar and function spaces
- Café
- Forecourt
Design Hub vision
RMIT’s Design Hub is being developed to support and expand the University’s position as an internationally renowned leader in design education and research. Construction of the 12,000m2 facility will also strengthen Victoria’s global reputation as a centre of design excellence and carve out a distinctive niche for Australian design in the global economy.
The Design Hub will provide facilities, accommodation and a collegial research base for RMIT’s diverse range of design initiatives, design research groups and postgraduate programs. Its research and education programs will be enriched by and developed in consultation with industry members and will be characterised by a work-integrated and industry-embedded focus.
Multi-disciplinary student teams working with industry and researchers will use the Design Hub as a home base. This will provide the environment for the cross-pollination of ideas and expertise among a range of disciplines including textile and fashion design, architecture, industrial design, landscape architecture, interior design, urban design, engineering, fine art and creative media.
In bringing together a range of stakeholders from industry, government, community and education sectors, the Design Hub will:
Design Hub participants
RMIT Design groups who will be major contributors to the Design Hub are:
The Design Research Institute was established in 2007 and is distinguished by its “art and science fusion” design initiatives. Initial research will be undertaken in the areas of Rapid Manufacture, Urban Liveability, Customising Space, Intervention through Art and Geoplaced Knowledge.
Collectively these groups will provide the impetus and drive, along with the design related academic schools, for the formation of design research teams who will occupy the bulk of the Design Hub’s floor space.
Location
The Design Hub will be located at the strategic north-west corner of Victoria and Swanston Streets on the former Carlton United Brewery (CUB) site. The rest of the CUB site is to be developed by Grocon and will be transformed into a ‘mixed-use village’.
RMIT’s future epicentre of design will add further vibrancy to this part of Melbourne and architecturally, will be an engaging and innovative contrast to the classical, historic Shrine of Remembrance on St Kilda Road, which marks the other end of Melbourne’s civic axis. The Design Hub will have a highly visible presence from Swanston Street north of La Trobe Street.
Architectural features
The Design Hub will feature leading-edge facilities for design education, research and engagement with industry.
The Design Hub will also be distinguished by environmentally sustainable design features and has achieved a Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) 5-star Green Star Education Rating that signifies “Australian Excellence” in environmentally sustainable design.
Features include:
Project update
June 2010 – May 2011
Delays to the construction program have pushed the occupation date to May, 2012. The project team is focusing on achieving the high quality built outcome as briefed for the project. The external façade panels are being installed at the lower levels, with progress up the building scheduled in the coming months. This will transform the appearance of the Design Hub.
January – May 2010
Construction is well underway and works are scheduled to be completed by Q3 of 2011.
August – December 2009
Construction began in 2009 and a new Project Manager, Philip Flynn, was appointed to project manage the construction of the Design Hub and the Swanston Academic Building.
Much work has been undertaken on the excavation of earth in preparation for the construction of the two basement levels of the Design Hub.
July 2009
RMIT University has appointed Watpac as the main contractor for the Design Hub. Construction work is set to begin in August, 2009.
February 2009
Tender documents were issued for the main contractor on the 26th February 2009.
January 2009
RMIT University has been granted planning approval for the Design Hub. At a media conference on the future Design Hub site on the morning of Monday, 2 February, the Victorian Planning Minister, Justin Madden, announced that the planning permit has been approved. Read more.
December 2008
The RMIT Design Hub project has been awarded $28.6 million in funding from the Federal Government’s Higher Education Endowment Fund (HEEF).
This 2009 funding round focuses on capital expenditure and strengthening research facilities in Australian universities.
The Design Hub is one of 11 approved projects, the funding of which is a part of a $4.7 billion nation-building infrastructure package.
Timeline
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Tender for main contractor goes out |
Late February 2009 |
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Construction starts |
July 2009 |
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Scheduled for practical completion |
October 2011 |
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Occupation |
September 2012 |
Consultants
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Architects |
Sean Godsell and Peddle Thorp Architects in association |
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RMIT Project Manager | |
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Manager, Client Relations | |
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External project manager |
Rob Fisher (Aurecon) |
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Services consultant | |
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Structural engineer | |
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Building surveyor | |
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Quantity surveyor | |
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Main contractor |
News
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Australian Financial Review, 27 July, 2012 The RMIT vice-chancellor is an unlikely property developer but, as Andrew Cornell writes, Margaret Gardner's instinct that buildings in their own right showcase and develop academic purpose has turned around the fortunes of the 132-year-old Melbourne institution. |
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RMIT names Design Hub contractor RMIT News, 6 July, 2009 RMIT University has appointed Watpc Construction (Vic) as the contractor for its innovative Design Hub, set to become one of Melbourne’s iconic buildings. |
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Design Hub wins planning approval RMIT News, Wednesday, 4 February, 2009 RMIT University’s $59 million Design Hub has been granted planning approval, with construction set to begin by May. |
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RMIT building to follow the sun (PDF, 2.47MB) MX, Tuesday, 3 February, 2009 The former Carlton United Brewery site in Swanston Street is set to be transformed into an environmentally sustainable Design Hub for RMIT University. |
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State gets a $1.9 bn kick-along The Age, Sunday, 13 December, 2008 Victoria has secured $1.9 billion for nine major road and rail projects, and three new facilities at Melbourne's universities, under a stimulus package designed to kick-start growth |
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RMIT's eco-friendly campus unveiled The Australian, 2 July RMIT's new $56 million Design Hub building in Melbourne will incorporate evironmentally responsible design with an outer skin of 16,000 sand blasted glass cells, some of which will be photovoltaic solar power collectors to help shade and power the building. |
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Design school promises to shine light on city The Age, Wednesday, 2 July Just as our skin reacts with the environment around us communicating moods, regulating heat and storing energy - a building planned for RMIT University will use a shimmering jacket of glass cells to join the elements with insensate bricks and mortar. |
 The east-facing façade of the future Design Hub. Courtesy: Sean Godsell Architects |  The south-facing façade of the future Design Hub. Courtesy: Sean Godsell Architects |
 The west-facing façade of the Design Hub. Courtesy: Sean Godsell Architects |  Close-up of the west-facing façade of the Design Hub. Courtesy: Sean Godsell Architects |
 A double-skin façade with a unique external skin that incorporates glazing disks. The disks in the outer façade have the capacity to be fitted with photovoltaic collectors for harnessing solar power. |  A detail of the intricate Design Hub facade. Courtesy: Sean Godsell Architects |
 Daytime view from the sunken forecourt, which provides an outdoor area for the Design Hub and connects to the future development of the site by Grocon. Courtesy: Sean Godsell Architects |  Night-time view of the Design Hub. The second skin transforms into a back-lit screen at night and has the capacity for rear projection Courtesy: Sean Godsell Architects |
 Aerial view of the Design Hub and the forecourt. Courtesy: Sean Godsell Architects. |  Aerial view of the roof of the Design Hub. A function room and exhibition space will sit atop the Design Hub. Courtesy: Sean Godsell Architects |
 A Design Hub lecture theatre, which will have timber flooring, a galvanised steel ceiling and “skin” walls. Courtesy: Sean Godsell Architects |  The “field of heads” in the cobbled bluestone circle in the Design Hub forecourt. The heads represent notable RMIT people. Courtesy Sean Godsell Architects |
 Day-time image of the Design Hub, forecourt and Design Archive, viewed from Swanston Street. Courtesy: Sean Godsell Architects |  Night-time view of the Design Hub. The second skin transforms into a back-lit screen at night and has the capacity for rear projection. Courtesy: Sean Godsell Architects. |
 Evening image of the Design Hub café entrance. Courtesy: Sean Godsell Architects. |  Design Hub gallery entrance. Courtesy: Sean Godsell Architects |