The 2012 Campus Master Plan provides two structuring principles that are applied consistently to all development sites: first, that the buildings fronting the open campus green are relatively low compared to buildings further back; and second, buildings further back are not only given greater freedom in their height, but also in their orientation, in recognition of the fact that buildings fronting the open campus green need to reinforce it, while buildings further back do not.
Location
As recommended in the original Campus Master Plan, buildings are located on the higher ground of the campus, towards the north and north-west of the property. This area is approximately bounded by the 11 metre contour. The area beyond the 10 metre contour is confirmed as subject to saturation and does not provide appropriate building conditions. The northern half of the eastern side of the campus is allocated for sports facilities.
Development control grids
This 2012 Campus Master Plan continues a series of development control grids. These derive from the establishment of a primary campus axis that serves to orient buildings approximately north-east, in order to balance an optimum due north orientation for solar control with the prevailing direction of cooling breezes.
The axis is physically defined by the buildings aligned either side of the open campus green, separated by 55 metres between their front elevations. This distance is capable of some modification where there is significant benefit to the campus as a whole. A transverse grid of 75 metres intervals intersects the primary axis at ninety degrees. This entire width should be taken up by the front elevation of a building that faces the open campus green.
Each of these building sites are separated by smaller grid increments of 6 metres to allow continuous, but limited, points of access to the open campus green by pedestrians and emergency services vehicles.
