RMIT University has unveiled plans for its Design Hub. The $56 million, 11,000m2 building will occupy the Swanston Street and Victoria Street corner of the former CUB site. The building is part of the University’s $500 million investment into the RMIT Quarter of the CBD.
It will incorporate a ‘second skin’ of 16,000 glass-capped cylinders that will rotate to help heat and cool the building. The Design Hub’s automation system means the cells track the sun to optimise exposure to PV collectors to allow the ingress of winter sun and so on. Importantly, the cells can be upgraded over time as solar technologies evolve. The work environments have access to fresh air filtered through the second skin. The building also harvests rain and waste water and uses recycled materials.
The plan for the Design Hub caters for and promotes a cross-pollinating of ideas via shared research spaces and provides a public interface for displaying the outcomes of that research in a series of exhibition and lecture spaces. Researchers will work across academic disciplines on projects in industrial and urban design, fabric and fashion design, architecture and landscape architecture.
The building has been designed by architect and RMIT alumnus, Sean Godsell. He says: “Over the course of a number of projects now my office has explored the possibility that building envelopes can emulate the performance of human skin, including protection, temperature regulation, sensory perception, filtration and the ability to produce energy. The second skin of the Design Hub incorporates all these functions.”
