October 15, 2015

The University of Melbourne’s new Melbourne School of Design (MSD) is a new, large-scale laboratory for built environment education and research, providing a working environment to encourage high-quality research, teaching and learning.

Designed by John Wardle Architects in collaboration with Boston-based architects NADAAA, and originally targeting a 5 star Green Star rating, the project was steered through the environmentally sustainable design and Green Star processes to achieve a 6 Star Green Star Design – Education Design v1.0 rating by the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) and be the first education facility awarded the maximum 10 Green Star innovation credits.

A.G. Coombs Advisory was engaged as the independent commissioning agent (ICA) on the project by building services consultant Aurecon, on behalf of the University of Melbourne. The ICA provided commissioning advice to the project team, from the schematic design stage through to practical completion, and will remain heavily involved in the 12-month post-construction building tuning period.