Monash University The Forum
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client Monash University
design team PEA with Taylor Cullity Lethlean
status Stage one Complete 2017
location Monash University Clayton Campus, Victoria
traditional land owners Bunurong People
photography John Gollings and Andrew Lloyd
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Monash University was founded in the late 1950’s with the campus being designed as a modernist composition of formally arranged buildings set around a gran ceremonial space known as The Forum. It had always been the ceremonial heart of the campus, having been the preferred place for student protest, gatherings and events. The refurbished Forum re-established the founding formal structure of the space with a grand central lawn flanked by a pair of axial pathways and a signature landscape featuring Australian flora. The interface between the surrounding buildings and The Forum had been opened up to foster more student activity, li8ke the major new entry plaza serving the refurbished Matheson Library. University graduation parades and ceremonies are held in the Robert Blackwood Hall, which spills out onto the Forum as the favorite place for family photographs.