Our client, one of the leading Universities in Australia, was looking to understand a future state experience in a yet-to-be-built student precinct.
In doing so, the client was looking to create a new ‘front door’ to the University and connection to the city.
Working in collaboration with our partners at The Lab, an initial phase of stakeholder engagement was followed by a 3 month online community with students to understand their current and desired experience, and work with them to ideate, refine and assess both the design and functional components of the new precinct. This was followed by a quantitative study amongst students and the wider University community to further understand current usage and perceptions, and gauge reaction to the new precinct concepts. This phase also provided and understanding of how students expected to use the new precinct, with a view to ensuring that the final design actively encouraged engagement across a wide range of activities.
This resulted in a clear student and stakeholder-led brief to the planners and architects, which has been endorsed and will form the backbone of the design and functional specifications of the new student precinct. This innovative approach to precinct design was also recognised in a recent submission to the Eco City World Summit conference as an example of best practice co-creation.