RMIT Building 88

NMBW was engaged to make specific the design studio and staff requirements within a larger project to decant and relocate several buildings worth of program, including staff facilities for the Industrial Design program, flexible project spaces and open workspaces, specialist urban research office, and general flat floor lecture space. The commercial leasing arrangements added further constraints and pressures to the project. The spatial challenge was how to deal with the depth of the existing floor plate. Careful arrangement of varying containments of individual spaces means that by circulating through the studios, there is a constant series of diagonal views towards daylight. The staff areas and other lockable spaces have been set out to maintain required levels of privacy and security whilst allowing interaction with the life of the students. A major advantage of this layout is the expansion of corridor space into ‘landscapes’, claimable by different studios or independent students as required.