Lyons and EJE Architecture have designed a new campus in Gosford for the University of Newcastle.
The $58 million building to be built on the site of a former Mitre 10 store will be made using mass timber and will be the first of its kind in the Central Coast city.
The project will establish a new health, innovation and education campus and will be a “stepping stone” development in the Gosford Urban Design Framework.
“The Central Coast Campus aims to provide teaching connected with [the Health Innovation cluster], as well as outreach programs to connect Gosford to other innovative and unique academic programs provided by the University,” reads a design statement for the project.
The building will incorporate teaching and learning spaces, a large community engagement space, an innovation hub, meeting and event spaces, and accessible outdoor spaces designed by McGregor Coxall.
The University of Newcastle’s proposed Gosford campus designed by Lyons and EJE Architecture.
Image: Lyons and EJE Architecture
Conceived as “a sandstone block”, the building’s mass will be “eroded” away at the corner of Beane and Mann Streets to create a sheltered gathering space. The concept connects to local Indigenous stories about “the importance of the saltwater edge, oyster collecting, food gathering and general social places that formed along the waterways and inlets of the entire region.”
The building will be made using materials that reference Gosford’s natural ecology and industrial history. The design targets a 6-star Green Star rating.
The project is funded through three-way partnership between the state and federal governments and the University of Newcastle.
“We know that young people on the Central Coast want more opportunities to study at university without leaving the region. Our new campus will mean that they will be able to study, live and then work here on the Central Coast – providing a major boost to this region’s revitalization,” said University of Newcastle vice-chancellor Alex Zelinsky when the funding partnership was announced in June 2022.
“We expect to build to more than 900 students studying at the Gosford campus within its first decade of operation, with identified courses in allied health, bioscience, digital transformation, law, business and innovation.”
Designs have been submitted to the NSW planning department for assessment. The campus is expected to be complete in 2025.
