Inventing the Future through Consultation, Design and Delivery – Flinders at Tonsley

“ Flinders at Tonsley is a place where students interact with business, where business interacts with researchers in areas such as engineering, medical devices and nanoscale technologies, to create the new products and processes of the 21st century”.

Liam Short (Hassell Architects) and Steve Woodrow (Project Manager) introduced the 70 visitors to Flinders University’s satellite campus.

Following long and detailed consultation including a series of workshops key guiding principles were established and reflected in the design:

• to be without boundaries and without limits in which a range of disciplines interact and collaborate
• to move away from traditional arrangements to flexible areas that encourage interaction
• to facilitate a cross discipline approach
• for innovation to occur at the boundaries
• for the disciplines to be visible and obvious through clever building design
• to encourage student interaction and on-site activity
• to bridge the gap between researchers and business, academics and commercially viable concepts

The consultation process included early contractor and subcontractor involvement and input from Lend Lease from the outset of the project.  The cross discipline approach was complemented by the design which stacked the building rather than spreading it across the site.  Providing visual links through the interconnecting floors, voids and extensive use of glass has helped achieve the required outcomes.

The complex houses engineering, computing science and there are 25 start-ups on site, undertaking research, innovating and producing products for a commercial market.

In July 2016 the RAIA (SA Chapter) awarded Flinders at Tonsley the Dr John Mayfield Award for Educational Architecture

Article by Ann Gorey, SA Chapter. Photos by Will Harbison, Graduate of Architecture, Russell Yelland Architects.