Sean Godsell, Sean Godsell Architects People will love it and hate it if it's a good building.
If people are ambivalent, we've probably failed
so I hope that people love it and I hope that they hate it ’cause that means that we’ve done our job.
Professor Margaret Gardner AO Vice-Chancellor & President, RMIT University
RMIT is a very unusual university because it's really concentred on technology and design
and it has a range of design disciplines and a depth of experience in design practice that is quite unusual.
I felt that the possibilities
that came from that richness couldn't really be maximised unless we had some
new space to do it.
I think Design Hub's really, really important
because of where it is on Swanston Street.
It mean it is on the
Spine, that deep symbolic spine of Melbourne.
You can't force an idea onto a client or force it onto a project, but in this case the client was looking for something innovative 'cause it's a design research building.
And so there's a whole
range of design disciplines
that can find their home and can find
new projects,
new outcomes, new possibilities in that cross-disciplinary mix of research in the Design Hub.
And here we have information booths
Yeah?
And so from the entrance you'll see things poking out of the wall. These will be like big iPhones.
Got a very supportive client right at the top with the Vice-Chancellor and that's the best thing an architect can have because it liberates you
and you know that you have the confidence of your client and so you can
return that loyalty with bravery
and that's what a client wants you there for.
They want you to be there to be a risk taker and to be
prepared to run to the edge of the cliff and jump.
Leon Van Schwaik, Professor of Architecture, School of Architecture and Design, RMIT University.
I've been here 23 years and over that time I persuaded the university that it should take its mission seriously and be interested in experimental architecture.
So we looked for architects who were ambitious,
who were good lateral thinkers
and who could demonstrate that they could work with a difficult
and complex client which universities always are.
It was clear to me that
we were approaching the moment where we could actually add to our collection of wonderful buildings and kinds of buildings by getting one from Sean.
Because this is a bespoke building so many parts of it are new.
The skin had to be designed and built new so required all sorts of testing.
Even the use of relatively conventional
industrial materials inside,
they're used in an unconventional way.
So the building
was a challenging building while appearing, on the surface, to be a model of elegant simplicity.
So I think that the building process has been challenging for everyone
but I think that the final product is glorious.