The Abedian School of Architecture is located on the campus of Bond University. The project involved the design of the landscape, architecture, interior and furniture design.

The building is a long, airy loft on 2 to 3 levels articulated by a series of ‘scoops’: defining structure enclosures that can be used for casual meetings and ‘crit’ sessions. These scoops line the central street that gently rises up the hilltop site.

‘Caring little for the trappings of try-hard grandeur, we care very much for the qualities that might engender a rich learning environment. One that provides a wide variety of interconnected but distinct interior spaces, from social to private and from interactive to contemplative. The street is much more than a circulation corridor. It also generates sociability, exchange and belonging. Knee-high timber plinths serve as benches to dally around. Stairs peel off while lateral view lines through the building allow for people–watching.

The large bespoke ‘scoops’ that line the street are undoubtedly the project’s masterstroke. At ground level they encircle a series of modest meeting areas, whilst at the top they unfurl wildly, bending and curling through the central volume.

The subtle humour of window shades to the north that look like a collection of raised eyebrows , the forest of timber columns that support billowing deep eaves on the south and the relaxed symmetry of furniture throughout the studio spaces all come together to make this building a celebration of the heterogeneous over the homogeneous, of occupation over object and of the particular over the general.’

Andrew Mackenzie . Architectural Review. February 2014