Campus disruption and the student experience

Early and enabling works will commence at the New Student Precinct site in mid-January.

These works will prepare the site for major landscape interventions, new builds and major refurbishments to existing Precinct buildings.

Temporary fencing, or hoarding, will be erected around the site to ensure the safety of students and staff, and provide the opportunity for students and the Project Team to activate the hoarding surfaces and spaces around its perimeter.

The New Student Precinct program of activations seeks to deliver broad student benefits through co-created events, interventions and activities that facilitate inclusive and participatory campus experiences for students, and which mitigate some of the negative effects of disruption.

Acknowledging the volume of construction works set to impact the Parkville campus over the next decade, Major Projects, in collaboration with Property and Sustainability, commissioned Arup's Digital Team to undertake an assessment of the campus user experience to develop mitigation strategies in response to campus disruptions.

Arup identified a range of opportunities and interventions (see image below) that the University could consider to improve user experience throughout this anticipated period of disruption, including innovative hoarding designs, temporary wayfinding (both physical and digital), pop-up food vendors, mobile furniture/ study spaces and information nodes.

As part of the pilot program of activations, hoardings around the Precinct construction zone will accommodate visually consistent designs, appealing graphics, temporary wayfinding, branding, key messaging and applications by artists.

The New Student Precinct Project is collaborating with the artistic platform Next Wave to produce a hoardings activation program that will provide students from diverse backgrounds with the opportunity to work alongside artists to produce engaging site-specific creative works, learn from experts and connect across disciplines. The programming will focus on participatory modes of artmaking, engaging students, staff and the wider population on campus through a series of works and creative projects on building facades and hoardings, as well as sculptural and performative activations and interventions.

By engaging artists from a multiplicity of identity perspectives and experiences, the projects will reflect the diversity of the student population, while attracting students not currently engaged in co and extracurricular activities, increasing time spent on campus, and, most importantly, fostering inclusion and a sense of connection.

Opportunities to contribute to the Next Wave activation program will be shared on the New Student Precinct webpage.