University of Newcastle creative studies students will have use of the institution's new Q Building from July 19, after Vice Chancellor Professor Alex Zelinsky picked up the keys to the just-completed mass timber frame building on Honeysuckle Drive on Monday.
The estimated $23 million four-storey structure by builders Hansen Yuncken is the first of its kind in Newcastle, constructed from 1.5-tonne laminated spruce beams and columns manufactured in Austria and encased on its north and west faces by the largest installation of 344 stage thermal glass in the southern hemisphere.
Professor Zelinsky described the build as "the entrepreneurial epicentre of the Hunter", adding that it would provide a space "that encourages the convergence of ideas, creation, innovation, and commercialisation" among staff and students.
The project was fast tracked by the NSW Government as part of its "shovel-ready" infrastructure stimulus during the COVID-19 pandemic last year, and is expected to house new facilities for the university's creative disciplines, including media arts production, news and digital media, animation, creative arts, performing arts, song writing and music production.
The building will also house the university's Future Arts and Science and Technology Lab - described as a "living lab and translational research centre" - as well as the Integrated Innovation Network Hub dedicated to the incubation, start-up, scale-up and launch of new commercial ventures.
"These facilities will be incredibly important for new industries and economic growth in our region to thrive," Professor Zelinsky said.
The glue-laminated timber beams - the feature of the new building - are between 40 and 78 centimetres thick, a size dictated by fire safety rather than everyday stresses, and proved an "exciting" first foray into mass timber construction for architects EJE Arhitecture.
EJE design director Anthony Furniss told the Newcastle Herald in November the timber, which was slightly more expensive than concrete and steel on a building of its size, not only had aesthetic appeal but practical benefits as well, including how quickly the build could be completed once materials arrived on site.
"From an environmental perspective, the timber is a sustainable resource, based on its supply chain, and the timber provides us with a carbon sink," he said.
Q Building is the first structure on a two-hectare site the university acquired from the state government in 2018.
