Innovation Walk

Kosloff Architecture and the Australian artist Callum Morton with MAP (Monash Art Projects), collaborated on the re-skinning of an existing 8 story brick clad building designed by Stephenson and Turner in 1969. The building is located at 18 Innovation Walk at Monash University Clayton campus.

Photo: Glenn Hester

Photo: Derek Swalwell

A clear conceptual framework was established from the onset, whereby both artist and architect, could rigorously critiqued the work as it evolved. The fundamental question they sought to answer was, ‘what it means to re-skin an existing 1960’s modernist building in a contemporary manner?’. The design was developed together in an iterative exchange of text, physical and electronic models.

Specialist consultants, Wood & Grieve engineers, Arup and Norman Disney & Young were integral to the façade design. Unprotected east and west facing facades as well as redundant services, required a design that would significantly improve environmental performance and provide services capable of feeding laboratories in the future. The integration of both these elements drove façade form. Shading encapsulating externalized services.

The outcome is neither Morton nor Kosloff Architecture. A glass re-enforced concrete ‘façade drape’ envelops the original form and lifts to negotiate other adjoining imperfect modernist buildings, as well as a newly formed entry. A colorful brick base, traces the original plan of the building as a memory and acknowledgment of the past.

Words: Kosloff Architecture