Box Hill Institute’s new Integrated Technology Hub is a purpose-designed technical skills education facility with a new degree-oriented teaching space above. Adjacent to a previous Spowers project (Building 8) and its distinctive connecting pedestrian bridge, this building boldly continues the architectural discourse of its predecessor in form, scale, and materiality reinforcing the Elgar Road frontage.
Built over four levels, it fosters collaborative teaching and learning within a multitude of environments. Taking full advantage of its exposure to Elgar Road, the facility showcases a multivalent and innovative approach to contemporary vocational education that is highly aligned to industry requirements.
It is the double-height ground floor workshop space that forms the heart of this facility. The challenge was creating “learning by doing” spaces within a very confined footprint. Put simply, the program was much larger than the space available. The solution came as a series of self-contained curriculum “packages” that could be stacked, deployed, and reshuffled much like containers dependent on the timetable. This has never been done before in this context. This approach also provided a very dense, rich, and activated workshop space; one which is all about transparency to the busy Elgar Road frontage, creating a 24/7 public billboard.
The project was an initiative of the Australian Government, conducted as part of the Education Investment Fund.
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