UNSW HILMER BUILDING|Materials Science & Engineering|Sydney, New South Wales, Australia|2015

Architects: Grimshaw
Associate Architects: HDR
Client: UNSW Australia
Contractor: Brookfield Multiplex
Photographers: John Gollings

The Materials Science and Engineering building provides a resolution between the precise functional and servicing requirements of physical and chemical science laboratories and the imperative to enhance interaction between faculty staff and students.

Offering a modular and reconfigurable laboratory system, bound by services cores and circumscribed by write-up spaces, offices, and meetings rooms that connect vertically and encourage collaboration at the interface of the researchers’ activities.

Porosity within the laboratory environment allows for research programmes to occur in clusters of horizontal or vertically connected ‘neighbourhoods.’

Faculty staff are located adjacent to the laboratory core, with the perimeter occupation centred around three story atria to enhance the collegial life of the school and building occupants. The building is public in orientation; there is no front or back.

The internal prospect of the collaborative spaces and a high-performance façade with sandblasted cast GRC louvres that twist in response to solar orientation configure the building’s expression, while the base is periodically lifted to present the positions of entry and expose the Michael Crouch Innovation Centre.

The building defines the southern edge of the new Alumni Green with a deep sunlit colonnade, proportioned for contemplation and informal outdoor learning.