UTS Alumni Green

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  • 2016

  • Architectural
    Place Design

Designed By:

Designed In:

Australia

The University of Technology Sydney Alumni Green has transformed a city campus, juxtaposing brutalist architecture with vibrant, green urban space. The unfenced peaceful, functional surrounds draw in students, staff and wider community.

A green, civic centrepiece has been formed by prioritising the design of places for people to work and socialise.


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  • CHALLENGE
  • SOLUTION
  • IMPACT
  • MORE
  • The project includes the creation of an extensive green roof terrace on the Science and Graduate School of Health Building, which provides a vantage point to view Alumni Green. The roof terrace acts as a conduit for water storage which is transported to ground level and stored for irrigating the gardens of Alumni Green. The green roof provides positive environmental benefits to the building as well as another opportunity for break out and social engagement. The project brings a vision of a city where natural processes are integrated into the very fabric of the urban environment. Together these elements promote a healthy community and resilient environment - a 'Living Architecture'.

  • Alumni Green introduces a 'human edge' to the central grass area, The Green. It provides a frame for place making initiatives, designed to facilitate and attract multiple and flexible uses - to invite occupation. Development and implementation of 'soft' infrastructure strategies including deckchairs, study chairs, tables, rugs and umbrellas to be placed on site each day - enhance the user experience, supporting the concept of 'social infrastructure'. Spaces have been designed for large and small gatherings, quiet reflection, passive and active recreation. Alumni Green is embedded as the green social heart of the UTS City Campus.

  • Prior to the redevelopment of Alumni Green, the UTS City Campus was characterised by a disparate collection of buildings with extremely limited opportunities for students to gather. The project has put people first providing a vibrant space for the campus community to work, relax and socialise. The design has achieved a bold collection of spaces with controlled materiality and an excellent balance between hard and soft surfaces. There has also been special attention paid to circulation as Alumni Green flows into surrounding buildings and streets making it a highly permeable and accessible space integrated into the surrounding community.

  • Alumni Green is a vital piece of green infrastructure in a highly urbanised part of the city, offering a series of three distinct landscape experiences, responding to the specific microclimatic conditions of the site: The Green - a large, raised turf platform used for both special events and informal daily activities. The landscaped edges provide informal seating areas. The Heart - a ceremonial gathering space for students and visitors modeled after town squares like Federation Square, Melbourne and the Pompidou Centre, Paris. The Garden - a mini oasis of trees and plants shading a series of connected student 'pods' each containing facilities ranging from power outlets for laptops, BBQs and ping pong tables.