Macquarie University’s revitalised Central Courtyard Precinct provides 40,000 students and more than 3,000 staff with new spaces and amenities to support creativity, collaboration and community on campus.

The precinct features a large landscape designed courtyard by ASPECT Studios connecting to a new residential courtyard which includes a five-storey building with new Graduation Hall, dining outlets and teaching spaces. The Lincoln building is being refurbished together with landscaped surrounds.

We were engaged in 2015 by Macquarie University with ASPECT Studios and Architectus to develop a Precinct Master Plan – a framework focussed on core project objectives including improved user comfort, effective transport, and sustainable use of resources. We provided specialist advice across 17 disciplines and continued our longstanding relationship with the University.

We heard from students and staff to understand their current experience on campus, which informed concepts for new spaces and services, blending digital and physical architecture. Concepts such as reconfigurable learning spaces, outdoor meeting places, and community networks for resource sharing, were considered in the context of the architecture and engineering designs. The redevelopment project builds on more than 50 years’ history as a place of learning and recognises the important role of the campus in establishing and building relationships.

Linking digital and physical architecture

Technology continues to change how we learn and interact with the physical world around us. With teaching content increasingly online and students opting to use their own devices, there’s a growing demand for comfortable and fit-for-purpose spaces that allow students to choose how, and where they want to learn – online or offline, on and off campus.

In line with the University’s desire to bring the campus to life 24/7, we focused on creating a digital, audio visual and learning services architecture that centres around user experience and unlocks the full potential of physical spaces. 

Redevelopment of this precinct stays true to its original purpose of a meeting place that brings together the campus community, but also introduces a fresh, modern ambience for future generations of students, staff and visitors.

Professor S. Bruce Dowton

Macquarie University Vice-Chancellor

Students and staff were engaged to better understand how technology could improve the experience of new learning spaces and student accommodation in the precinct, including helping to create communities, improve sustainability and adaptability of space and encourage diversity and lifelong learning. 

The new central building provides an engaging learning environment that promotes creativity, collaboration and the testing of ideas. It includes a variety of room sizes, formats and facilities that support different education techniques, from large format classrooms to group and individual student workspaces.

The prevailing focus has been on flexibility of use with students and staff able to adapt the spaces to meet their needs.

Study spaces

Digitally connected learning spaces

Recreation lounge

Recreation spaces in the new building

Recreation spaces

Colourful, engaging rooms

Sustainable design

Designed by Architectus, the new buildings serve multiple functions and deliver modern social and educational infrastructure. 

From an architecture perspective many of the buildings built in the 1960s were harsh in form. The new wave of buildings at Macquarie University are much softer – with the use of more timber, transparency, natural light and with sustainability a key to their design, use and maintenance.

Building envelopes maximise passive ventilation to help reduce air-conditioning costs while still providing comfortable conditions for users. The new five-level ‘Hub’ is the largest project element and the heart of the Central Courtyard Precinct, and indeed the campus. It features a full height central atrium designed to allow visual connection between floors and maximise natural ventilation and daylight.

The building envelope has also been optimised for each different orientation to reduce heating and cooling loads and to allow views of the lake and parkland.

The new student accommodation tower’s design achieves a carbon neutral target that both minimises operational costs for the University and provides a distinctive ambience.

We developed a precinct-wide power, communications, and security strategy to optimise efficiencies and minimise system maintenance, including the strategic location of a central plant system to minimise distribution costs. 

Due to multiple building atriums, our fire engineers identified a single precinct-wide standby generator for cost efficiency. 

Student building

New buildings on campus

Adding dimension to the campus after dark

Our lighting masterplan enhances the central focus of the campus, activating spaces, integrating wayfinding, and creating an uplifting and elegant night-time experience. 

Designed by ASPECT Studios, the courtyard is the heart of Macquarie University and the team’s vision has been to make it the central focus of the campus by incorporating lighting into the landscape while facilitating storytelling and wayfinding.

The natural environment around the University plays a significant aesthetic role during the day. The new lighting accentuates this natural beauty at night to deliver stronger visual connections to the lake and environs, while blending with the central courtyard and complementing new and existing architecture.

Precinct scene settings and control systems allow for dynamic lighting that allows for flexibility and can respond to changing environmental and usage patterns. The lighting has been designed and curated to minimise light spill into the night sky for better health and environmental outcomes.

A considered accentuation of elements within the natural and built environment – from low level lighting of benches, planter beds and landscaping features, to illuminated pathways and spaces, and vertical lighting of architectural features – makes the Central Courtyard a place people will want to be.

Steps running alongside the building

Lighting and landscaping on campus

The university's courtyard at night

Lighting the courtyard at night

Partners & collaborators

ASPECT Studios / Architectus