The Student Dorms in Australia’s Largest Passive House Building Are Surprisingly Swank

ByMyProperty Life

Community-focused and constructed with cross-laminated timber, Gillies Hall at Monash University perfectly marries student life with sustainability.

Gilles Hall has 150 single occupancy rooms, as well as

Located just outside Melbourne, Monash University’s Peninsula Campus is a widely respected research facility specializing in early childhood education, physiotherapy, and nursing, and is home to 4,000 students during the school year. The grounds feature brick buildings, eucalyptus trees with rusty red blossoms, and Gillies Hall, a nearly 70,000-square-foot student residence that happens to be the largest Passive House certified building in the Southern Hemisphere. 

Cross-laminated timber (CLT) benches, an exposed CLT ceiling, and concrete softened with a hint of olive green make the common spaces feel inviting.

Cross-laminated timber (CLT) benches, an exposed CLT ceiling, and concrete softened with a hint of olive green make the common spaces feel inviting. 

Read another article:Design Trends for Creating a Vacation Vibe at Home

Photo: Peter Clarke

“We started working with Monash in 2012 and completed Turner Hall, a student residence, which met the Australian green standards,” says architect Simon Topliss of Jackson Clements Burrows. “We won this project in May of 2017, and Monash was interested in exploring Passive House certification (PCH), a rigorous standard for energy efficiency, and cross-laminated timber (CLT), which required a large learning curve because only three or four projects of this scale in Australia had ever used that material before.” 

Gilles Hall was completed in a mere 19 months and consulted with Pablo Sepulveda of multinational engineering firm AECOM and David Ritter of environmental design consultancy Atelier Ten.

Gillies Hall was completed in a mere 19 months in consultation with Pablo Sepulveda of multinational engineering firm AECOM and David Ritter of environmental design consultancy Atelier Ten.

Read another article:Hot Trends: 20 Best Farmhouse Style Kitchens in White and Wood

Photo: Peter Clarke

The goal was to have the new building open by February of 2019, an ambitious timeline. The team got to work on creating a structure that would not only meet the needs of Monash students, but also be supremely eco-friendly. 

“PCH is very new to Australia,” Topliss says. “There were some small residential buildings in Melbourne, but nothing yet of this size. The standards changed the way we thought from the very beginning.”

Gilles Hall has continual outer shading thanks to its steel structure, double glazed thermally broken windows, fully taped CLT facade panels and heat recovery mechanical ventilation to every room.
Read another article:Revamped Small Barcelona Apartment Combines Multiple Styles and Finishes

Monash has a Net Zero Initiative, and Gillies Hall follows suit with continual outer shading thanks to its folded steel structure; double-glazed, thermally broken windows; fully taped CLT facade panels; and heat recovery mechanical ventilation to every room.

Photo: Peter Clarke

See the full story on Dwell.com: The Student Dorms in Australia’s Largest Passive House Building Are Surprisingly Swank
Related stories:

  • Top 5 Homes of the Week With Dreamy Dining Rooms
  • A Clever Renovation Turns a Dark Dutch House Into a Light-Filled Family Home
  • Before & After: An Enchanting Craftsman Home in Portland Is an Ode to Local Flora

Similar Posts

  • Cascading House

    The site has the typical challenges of many urban lots in Ho Chi Minh city: abutted by tall neighboring houses, small developable area relative to the clients’ program, and compromised access to daylighting and natural ventilation. Due to the height restriction, the house was pushed 1 level below the ground to accommodate the large program. In an effort to solve as many issues as possible, we proposed a concrete column system hidden inside the north and south concrete wall that face the neighbors, acting as the primary structure for the house and freeing up the space in-between. These concrete walls provide privacy to the clients and their family, and open up the east and west facade for views and outdoor-indoor connection. Because the column system extends continuously from the basement to the roof, the concrete beams spanning in-between can be moved vertically without any structural concerns. This flexibility also meant total discretion to determine the elevations of the upper floors–which we intended to take advantage of. By convention, the program is stacked floor-by-floor to maximize the usable area of a small lot which could result in monotonous and isolated spaces. We wanted to do just the opposite: visually and spatially connecting the different parts of the house together by splitting the floor plates, and then cascading them to create a multi-story atrium. In this space, life unfolds naturally; once a family member steps out of the bedroom, he/she will be in an all-connected “room”, and in the company of another member, whether that person is on the other side of the atrium or 2 levels above. In addition to spatial articulation, this atrium brings daylighting down to the basement, and–working with the 2 sunken gardens which are naturally filled with cool air–aids the stack effect by letting the hot air rises to the top. The temperature of the lower floors, as a result, becomes more comfortable. From the outside, Cascading House looks solid as a rock that provides sturdy shelter. The interior, however, feels as porous as a sponge soaking up natural light and air, and brings family members closer together–the qualities that make this house a home.