The Monash Business School is a unique education facility designed exclusively for post-graduate and executive students, to create an environment which bridges the gap between executive level education and the corporate environment.

It is among the 1% of business schools in the world to have achieved ‘triple crown’ accreditation by the three major global business school accreditation bodies – AACSB, EQUIS and AMBA – and the only Group of Eight Australian University to have done so. The school is to be located on the Caulfield Campus, on Levels 8, 9 and 10 of the existing Building H. The new facilities will provide a high quality corporate environment for the executive hub for the Monash Business School, as well as high-end educational facilities for delivering programs for Executive Education, Executive Masters of Business Administration (EMBA) and the Masters of Business Administration (MBA).

NH have designed the new 3-storey faculty to suit the pioneering approach of the school; a full emersion into the digital realm of education. Through dedicated ‘Syndicate’ and function rooms, interactive and collaborative working is seamlessly integrated through aligned data streams, with wi-fi connectivity throughout, screens at every table of six students, and larger wall mounted flat panels displays to enable, multiple configurations. Power is provided through multiple floor-boxes. Teaching is mobile and ‘roaming’, rather than lectern based. The syndicate rooms allow for focused group-based work for up to eight students, with their own devices displaying interchangeably on a shared wall-mounted display. This same approach is carried through to the digitally enabled class-rooms, workspaces, and interactive lecture theatres through seating layouts designed for easier collaborative working, combined with various digital, and audio-visual functions.

Different learning styles require different layouts, from lecture theatres, to class-room based, and interactive teaching. The design team carried out research into these types of scenarios, and through their deep understanding of the requirements to enable effective collaborative, and individual, working spaces ensured that whole-room layout was given careful consideration, resulting in optimum layout design for seating, and infrastructure. Lighting plays an important role in the quality of learning and user-experience; research shows that different light levels encourage types of learning behaviours, and as such it was designed as an integral part to the building itself.

As the construction nears the end, we look back at some of the progress highlights from our site visits.