Monash University Forum Competition

Location \ Clayton
Collaborators \ Arm Architects and Monash University
Completion Date \ 2014

Rush Wright Associates collaborated with ARM architects on the competition submission for the Monash University Forum. The Monash University ‘Central Precinct Revitalisation Competition,’ sought design ideas for the ‘Forum’ – the primary civic space of the Clayton campus. The design team explored an approach sourced in the history, traditions and culture of Monash University.

Central to this was our interest in uncovering the very early ideas for the site, focussed on the masterplanning conducted by Osborn McCutcheon and the firm at BSM. We sought to uncover more about the design thinking embedded in the Forum plan and our reading took us to a remarkable moment in Australian design history.

We found the parti established for Forum West and the flexible design strategy of the rainforest cells as being a key to salvaging the space should the Campus Centre wedges be retained. The cells proposed are projected up in the design as crystalline fragments of wintergarden: discrete, full height kiosks and ‘crystals’ that would form a new landscape of artificial forms and urban programme intermingled with rainforest plantings and other campus elements as needed

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