RMIT Building 100 Pedestrian Improvements by Openwork

Aboriginal Nation

Kulin

Client

RMIT University Property and Campus Services for the School of Architecture and Urban Design at RMIT University

Location

Carlton, Victoria

Jury comment

This project, commissioned to keep a prominent public space safe from hostile vehicle attack, is about a horrifying side of contemporary society. But the RMIT Building 100 Pedestrian Improvements project turns this dynamic on its head and turns potential terror into a place that actually protects and nurtures public gatherings, not with bollards but through a beautifully articulated urban solution. The improvement not only serves the purpose of preventing undesired vehicular activity, but also enhances the experience of pedestrian progression through the space. The resulting intervention is an object of wonder, an intriguing retrofit punctuation of a space that provides an appropriate adjunct to the adjoining architecture.

Entrant Openwork Project team Openwork (Benjamin Kronenberg, Dylan Gilmore, Elizabeth Herbert, Marijke Davey and Mark Jacques); RMIT (Yazid Ninsalam); Irwinconsult (Phil Gardiner); Spark Furniture (Tim Cuttiford) Photography Peter Bennetts