RMIT Design Hub

The purpose of the Design Hub is to provide accommodation in one building for a diverse range of design research and post graduate education.

RMIT is a world leader in design research however post graduates are currently dissipated across various campuses and facilities. 

Research groups have the ability to locate and fine tune their accommodation within ‘warehouses’ - open plan spaces where research teams can set up and tailor their work environment to suit their particular needs.

Teams may stay for anywhere from six months to three years depending on the nature of and funding limits to their research and education programs. 

Research may include the need for workshops to make physical models to be located alongside computer studios, three dimensional printing, virtual reality modelling and so on.

The plan of the Hub acknowledges the desire for incidental cross pollination where researchers from one field encounter those from completely unrelated other fields as part of their day to day use of the building.

An exhibition space and design archive provide a public interface with both industry and research outcomes. These spaces combined with a variety of lecture, seminar and multi purpose rooms facilitate high level exchanges in a number of forums.

The Hub has a large number of ESD features and incorporates strategies of water, waste and recycling management that are the equal of any ESD focussed building on the planet.

The cells have been designed so that they can be easily replaced as research into solar energy results in improved technology and part of the northern façade is actually dedicated to ongoing research into solar cells to be conducted jointly by industry and RMIT.

The entire building façade, in other words, has the capacity to be upgraded as solar technology evolves and may one day generate enough electricity to run the whole building.

The façade comprises a specifically detailed double glazed inner skin on each face of the building and an automated operable second skin shading device.

It is made up of nominally 600 mm diameter sandblasted glass disks, which are fixed to either a horizontal or vertical aluminium axel.

Each axel is fixed to the outer face of a galvanised steel cylinder of a slightly greater diameter and nominally 130 mm in depth.

Each typical panel is made up of 12 operable glass discs and 9 discs which are fixed. At the ground and plant room levels all glass disks will be fixed.

There are 86 panels on each level and therefore 774 panels for the nine levels of the building.

Perimeter air intakes and fine mist sprinklers incorporated into the double glazed inner skin provide passive cooling to the UFAD system. The water used in this ‘Coolgardie safe’ system is harvested from the roof.