For those of you who are new to UNSW, welcome to the School of Built Environment. For those who are returning, welcome back!
For the past three years we have been mostly away from our campus ‘home’, the Red Centre (soon to be named the Anita B. Lawrence Centre), firstly during COVID, and then during the building’s refurbishment in 2022. We're delighted that construction at the Red Centre has now finished, and look forward to welcoming back students and staff for an exciting 2023 academic year ahead.
Read on below for some things to look forward to this year, now that we're back on campus!
Head of School, Philip Oldfield
Enhanced teaching facilities
During 2022, we took the opportunity to refurbish and enhance many of the spaces at BE, providing students with new high-performance learning facilities. We have invested $1.3m in updating the five computer labs on levels 3 and 4 of the Red Centre, installed new windows in the level 5 and 6 Architecture Studios, and created an entirely new studio space on level 6. Teaching spaces in the Squarehouse have also seen new technology installed, and we have moved the student print room (with large scale A0 printers and photocopiers) to the Red Centre mezzanine, to give students easier access to printing.
Software support
We’ve heard from students that additional software support would be beneficial, to advance your learning. To help, we’ll be piloting software ‘drop-in’ sessions in Term 1, where students can gain informal support from established users of key software if they get stuck or have a particular question. We’ll send out announcements once the term has begun on how students can access this support, and we’ll be sure to listen to any feedback students have on this initiative.
Summer Studios
As we start Term 1, we also finish the Summer term at BE, which provided students with exciting and unique elective offerings. This Summer saw our Industrial Design students travel to Seoul, Architecture and Interior Architecture students travel to Cambodia, and our newly-appointed Seidler Chairs, Richard Hassell and Mun Summ Wong of WOHA, travel from Singapore to UNSW to run an intensive design studio. The work from Richard and Mun Summ’s studio is on display in the BE Gallery, so do stop by for a look.
We are planning to run more international studios and courses in Summer 2023 / 2024, and will be advertising these to students towards the end of Term 1.
BE in review
In January, we launched ‘BE in Review’, our annual newsletter capturing our successes, values and impact across 2022 and 2023.
This past year, UNSW BE’s talented students and alumni have been successful in both global and national awards. Our research has been recognised at the highest level, with UNSW named as the top research institution in Australia in the field of Architecture, for the second year in a row. Our researchers have also received $11.5m in new grant funding to develop new knowledge and tackle some of the most significant challenges in our fields.
BESA peer mentoring
BESA are again setting up their fabulous peer mentoring scheme to welcome new students to BE. If you’re interested in being a peer mentor and sharing your experiences, you can sign up here. If you’re a new student in the School and want to learn tips and tricks from experienced peers, you can join the peer mentoring scheme here.