Perth’s newest university campus lauded at major architecture awards

Perth’s newest cultural hub, the Edith Cowan University campus project, has won multiple architectural awards as “a spectacular example” of civic generosity and city revitalisation.

The WA Architecture Awards jury has praised the new ECU City building for linking Perth’s central district back together with a “dramatic new insertion into the blighted and divisive strip of railway land separating the CBD from the entertainment precinct of Northbridge”.

The state’s most prestigious architectural awards, announced at a gala event on Friday, celebrated ECU City by awarding it top prize in four categories, educational, interior and urban architecture, as well as WA’s highest award, the George Temple Poole Award.

ECU City was designed by Melbourne-based architectural firm Lyons with Silver Thomas Hanley and Haworth Tompkins.

“The virtuosity of that building can’t be understated,” said jury chair and architect Peter Hobbs.

“You’ve got a railway line and a bus station underneath it all and six acoustically isolated theatres and recording studios on top. It’s incredible to achieve all that from a technical point of view.”

He said the West Australian-based company Multiplex, recognised as a major global building contractor, deserved credit for meeting ECU City’s extraordinary technical challenge.

“They did it on time and on budget. It’s a world-class building.”

Lead architect Neil Appleton, from Lyons, told WAtoday earlier this year that ECU City’s novel “vertical campus” had emerged from its clients.

“I think what’s amazing about it is that it started with a really visionary idea from the university; they wanted to somehow represent and supercharge the idea of a collision between business, technology, creativity, with WAAPA and the school of arts and humanities, business, law and cybersecurity coming together,” he said.

“We structured the building like a mini city where there are streets in the air, laneways in the air. So it’s like you’re in a city, and you can look into the work going on inside classrooms.”

Hobbs said the $853 million ECU building, which spans 11 floors, is the opposite of a sprawling campus.

“People bump into each other on staircases and escalators. You’re kind of designing interaction and cross-pollination into the building,” he said.

“And it’s a very legible building – you can always tell where you are and it’s got amazing public art within it, like the big screen which is public art.”

In other award categories, Hobbs said a hallmark of this year’s winners were more modest aspirations, innovative solutions, sustainability and ad