Wurun Senior Campus wins global award

ENR has thousands of subscribers worldwide and for the past 10 years has hosted a "Global Best Projects" competition, to identify and honour the project teams behind outstanding design and construction efforts over the past year from anywhere in the world. Winners this year included 34 projects located in 18 different countries.

Wurun Senior Campus was entered by project architects GHD Woodhead with input from all major project partners and was named Best Project Education/Research.

Wurun Senior Campus was funded by the Victorian State Government and completed in time to welcome students for Term 1 2022. 

Designed by GHD Woodhead with Grimshaw, managed by SMEZ and with First Nations consultation, historical content and interpretive design by SHP — Sue Hodges Productions, Wurun has a capacity for 650 students, and the building steps up along its length to create a series of outdoor terraces each connecting to the interior learning environment. Spaces are highly flexible, adaptable and technology rich, designed to help students build 21st-century skills. 

Project manager Michaja Rutten said the project win validated the importance of building a good relationship between BESIX Watpac, the campus design team, VSBA as client and the superintendent SEMZ.

"Collaboratively we have designed and delivered a unique vertical inner city secondary campus facility for the students to enjoy learning and developing themselves as the next generation workforce."

The campus is a great example in terms of sustainability and includes features that help improve air quality, maximise natural light and incorporate lots of greenery. On top of that, the building has the capacity to run solely on green energy.

ENR provides the engineering and construction news, analysis, commentary and data that supports construction industry professionals to do their work more effectively. ENR reports on the top design firms, both architects and engineers, and the top construction companies as well as projects in the United States and around the world.

"Global Best Projects" Winners will be spotlighted in the Dec. 12 issue of ENR and at the Global Best Projects Awards Virtual Presentation in December.

To be eligible for the award, projects had to be completed between January 2021 and May 2022 and win over a panel of 11 international industry veterans.