Project

Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, has released further details of its first foreign university campus in Indonesia, after it secured official legal status and a licence to operate from the Ministry of Education and Culture.

A lease has been signed for the Yayasan Monash University Indonesia, known as Monash Indonesia, on its Bumi Serpong Damai (BSD) City location, southwest of Jakarta.

Monash University senior pro vice-chancellor (Southeast Asia Partnerships) Professor Andrew MacIntyre said that plans will now go ahead to design a purpose-built campus in a modern and sustainable city centre following the lease signing.

MacIntyre said: “The BSD City location was selected as it best represents Monash’s own goals: to be connected to industry, in close proximity to innovative companies and other Indonesian universities, highly environmentally sustainable, and create a real precinct of work, recreation and lifestyle around the campus.”

The new environmentally friendly Indonesia campus at Green Office Park 9 (GoP9) will be digitally advanced and house an innovative digital library.

Monash University president and vice-chancellor professor Margaret Gardner said: “This campus will be working closely with industry in Indonesia. It was essential that Monash Indonesia was located in the hub of industry to ensure our students had access to employers, employment opportunities and industry leaders.”

The next phase of the development will involve work on the design of the campus, as well as staff recruitment

Image: The BDS Green Office Park southwest of Jakarta will be home to the Monash Indonesia campus. Credit: Monash University.

Construction

BAM starts construction on CEG’s EQ development in Bristol

BAM has started main construction work on Commercial Estates Group’s (CEG) 200,000ft² EQ development in Bristol’s city centre in the UK.

The company has been appointed to deliver the eight-storey glass construction at 111 Victoria Street, which has been designed as a Smart Tech-enabled building.

Designed by architect Aukett Swanke with sustainability, amenity, health and well-being at its core, the building will feature fewer touchpoints, increased air changes and air quality sensors to accommodate requirements created by the Covid-19  pandemic. 

IThe EQ building will provide amenities such as a rooftop bar, restaurant and business lounge with a communal terrace, ground floor café kitchen and a 50-seat auditorium, in addition to a fitness suite and break-out space.

Construction

GTIS Partners begins construction on build-to-rent community in Arizona

 GTIS Partners has started construction on a single-family build-to-rent community at a master-planned development called Cadence in Mesa, Arizona, US.

Cadence is owned by GTIS and Harvard Investments and has more than 2,200 units. With the new phase, 197 rental homes will be added to the mix of for-sale housing and community retail, which have been developed over the past eight years.

Designed to offer both single-family and multi-family living, the new phase represents the company’s focus on theground-up development of rental communities.

The single-storey homes and private backyards are within a fully designed gated community with on-site management and amenities, including a pool and fitness centre .

Deal

Autodesk to improve offerings for architects with Spacemaker acquisition

Software provider Autodesk has agreed to acquire Norwegian architect software developer Spacemaker for $240m in cash.

Oslo-based Spacemaker facilitates early-stage design decision making for architects, urban designers, and real estate developers through Cloud-based, artificial intelligence (AI), and generative design.

Through the deal, Autodesk aims to expand its products for architects and provide them with the ‘automation superpower’ to test design concepts and create more sustainable spaces and cities. The addition of Spacemaker’s platform will enable the company to speed up outcome-based design capabilities for architects.

Autodesk CEO and president Andrew Anagnost said: “Spacemaker is a lesson in the power of insights and automation, giving designers the ability to create and test urban design ideas in minutes. With two billion more people expected to call our planet home by 2050, speed of design and sustainability in urban planning must be priorities. Spacemaker technology offers a fundamental shift in how we imagine and build cities to keep people and the planet healthy.”

Spacemaker CEO and co-founder Havard Haukeland added: “Autodesk shares our goal to create a healthier planet for everyone and is uniquely positioned to more rapidly place our product in the hands of planning teams everywhere. This is a proud milestone for our team and those who supported us from the start.”

Foster + Partners wins competition to design Guangming Hub in China

British architecture company Foster + Partners has won the competition to design Guangming Hub, a new transport-oriented development in China. The development site is located on the high-speed rail link that connects Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Guangzhou.

Set to integrate three new metro lines in the city, the proposal is the central focus of a masterplan for the region.

Kier wins contract to deliver £106m Marylebone Square mixed-use scheme

Kier has secured a new contract to deliver Marylebone Square, a £106m mixed-use scheme in Central London, UK. The contract was awarded by Concord London, the development manager of the project. Located at the site of the former Moxon Street carpark, the 25,160m² project involves building a nine-storey complex featuring five residential floors above ground floor and a three-storey basement.

Walker to invest $2.5bn in Maroochydore redevelopment

Walker Corporation has signed an agreement to invest $2.5bn to accelerate Maroochydore city centre’s shovel-ready central business district redevelopment project in Australia. The company signed the agreement with Sunshine Coast Council and SunCentral Maroochydore, which will oversee the project development. As part of the redevelopment, about 160,000m² of commercial and retail space and 4,000 residential apartments will be delivered over the next 15 to 20 years.

TfL and Barratt London receive planning approval for 454-home scheme

The London council of Brent has given planning permission to Transport for London (TfL) and Barratt London’s proposal for a 454-home scheme in Wembley. Out of the 454 new homes, 40% will be affordable housing. The plan also includes a retail unit and improvements to the public realm, which will help to change the local area.

TateHindle architects have designed the scheme, which will be developed on a 1.6-acre site.

York Central infrastructure work receives approval from city council

Infrastructure work at York Central in the UK has received the approval from the City of York Council’s planning committee. Initial clearance works have already begun at the site with construction set to start early next year.

The York Central project involves the redevelopment of a brownfield site that will be transformed to include 2,500 new homes. The project also involves up to 1.2 million square feet of commercial development, new bridge over the East Coast mainline railway, new cycling and pedestrian routes and a new public park.

Construction starts on University of California health sciences complex

The design-build team of Hathaway Dinwiddie Construction, HED and The S/L/A/M Collaborative has announced the start of construction on a health sciences complex at the University of California, Irvine in the US. The nine-acre complex with an investment of $134m will house the Susan & Henry Samueli College of Health Sciences and the Susan Samueli Integrative Health Institute. Both facilities are expected to open in 2022.