Victoria University Victoria Law School

  • client Victoria University

    status Complete 2003

    location Queen Street, Melbourne, Victoria

    traditional land owners Wurundjeri People

    photography John Gollings

  • Victoria University acquired the former Public Records Office in Queen Street Melbourne to become the headquarters for the Victoria Law School. The site is located in the heart of the Law Precinct, which includes all of the city’s major Court buildings. The former Records Office was built in 1900-1904 and is listed on the Heritage Victoria Register. The refurbished building provides accommodation for the School of Law and the Sir Zelman Cowen Centre for Continuing Legal Education. The project involved the conversion of the main 4 storey Records Office together with a single storey rear Strong Room into general academic facilities, seminar rooms, Moot Courts, and lecture theatres. Above the Strong Room there is a 2 storey extension containing the Law Library. Its zigzag folded walls are redolent of a large concertina accordion springing above the roof. Deep horizontal furrows create an illusion of scale less form, where crumpled course lines disguise the real storey height. Within the inner courtyard the folded form dissolves into a glass curtain wall opening the interior of the library to view and daylight. The new Law School is an ideal adaptation for this fine early twentieth century building.

  • 2004 Royal Australian Institute of Architects Institutional Architecture Award

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