anzca

2001

630 st kilda road, melbourne

The design of the new ANZCA extension has been framed directly as a result of referencing back to the original Ulimaroa villa (the existing College building). We were anxious to ensure that the new building is a "partner" building for the original and in no way competes with it. Hence it is designed as a background to the original; in the same way artists compose their canvas with a figure and ground, Ulimaroa is to be the figure building and the new building is to be the ground. To ensure the original Victorian character of the villa is preserved, the new building is free of ornament and without exotic form or colour. It in no way mimics Victorian architecture, but forms, quite literally, a 'backdrop'. It takes on the dress of the plain, neutrally coloured high-rise buildings to the south whose size dominates the site. What emerges is a court of tall down-dressed buildings surrounding the Ulimaroa villa, and the stark architecture of these new buildings serves to accentuate the splendor of the grand old Victorian. Also, the extension sits at the rear of the site, thereby creating a garden courtyard between Ulimaroa and itself, which preserves the traditional wrap-around garden schemeof a Victorian villa. The screen wall of the extension is a sheer skin - a negligee - transparent in parts, a filter to the sun and security for those inside the building. Parts of the building can be spotted underneath the veil. The screen is propped on glass tiled columns and a glass wall so that it appears to float. The building's principal interior feature, its atrium, is designed to function on different scales and for various puroses. On a domestic scale, it acts as the main hallway would for a Victorian house, a space of welcome and orientation, complete with a grand stairway - in this case, one that spirals up eight storeys. On the large, multistory scale, the atrium functions as a vertical corridor that allows for cross-departmental encounters as it links each floor with the others so that the building is an integrated whole. The atrium also performs as a ventilation chimney so that the demands on air conditioning, ventilation, smoke exclusion and clear air movement are met by natural air movements rather than being fan blown, thereby reducing the need for energy consumption.