A02 Gillies Hall, Monash University

Australia's first mid-rise, mass timber, passive house student accommodation building.
Project Name
Gillies Hall, Monash University
Case Study Type
Mid-rise
Location

Monash University Peninsula Campus
Frankston VIC
Australia

Consultants
Aecom
Builders
Multiplex
Architects
Jackson Clements Burrows Architects
Suppliers
Xlam Dolomiti
Photographer Details
Peter Clarke
a building with a fence and grass
people sitting at a table in a room
a kitchen with a large island
a woman sitting on the floor in a bedroom

Overview

A major milestone for the Mid-rise advisory program, this project at Monash University heralded the first entry of a Tier 1 builder into residential timber construction in Australia. This was a significant moment, as the positive experience of Multiplex set the tone for other builders approaching timber construction.

Totalling six stories in height comprising five levels of mass timber over a first floor concrete podium, Gillies hall is the first Passive House Certified project of its scale in Australia and provides 150 self-contained studio student apartments, two ground-floor apartments for residential support, and ground-floor common spaces for all 250 on-campus residential students. At the time of opening, it was the largest Passive House certified (PHC) building in the southern hemisphere, Australia’s first student accommodation built to Passive House standards, and one of Australia’s largest cross laminated timber (CLT) projects.

The project demonstrates Passive House as a responsible and viable option for large residential projects in the Australian context. The benefits are already evident in this comfortable, healthy, thermally consistent residential building, which will continue to function as a low energy, climate resilient building into the future, delivering on the University’s ambition for a net zero campus by 2030.

The project’s list of awards includes:

Construction21 Green Solutions Awards - International Energy & Temperate Climates Prize (2019)

Melbourne Design Awards - Gold Medal Winner (2019)

Premiers Sustainability Awards - Built Environment – Winner (2019)

Australian Timber Design Awards - Sustainability Award (2019)

-38.1526224, 145.1361129

Related case studies

a building with a river in the background

A04 Aveo Bella Vista

The short delivery time requirement for the Aveo Bella Vista building, completed in Norwest, Sydney in 2018 made it an ideal project for a CLT design, enabling Strongbuild to complete it 13 weeks earlier than with the concrete program.
a group of buildings with glass walls

B08 Geelong Civic Precinct

The City of Greater Geelong has unveiled the design of its proposed $200 million civic precinct. The building will be made from glulam post and beam, and secondary CLT.
a building with many windows

B12 36 Wellington Street

Hines’ first initiative in Melbourne, this development represents an exciting sign of the times for timber construction. With two massive timber offices already built in the US and several more slated to start in the coming years, the Hines T3 strategy (Timber, Transit and Technology) replaces structural systems such as concrete and steel with prefabricated solid wood systems, to create best-in-class projects in a fast, clean, sustainable and aesthetically pleasing manner.

Are you looking for a supplier?

Start Your Search

Social Media Feeds