Storey Hall
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Storey Hall, located at 342–344
Swanston Street Swanston Street is a major thoroughfare in the centre of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is one of the main streets of the Melbourne central business district and was laid out in 1837 as part of the original Hoddle Grid. The street vertically ...
in
Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
,
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
, is part of the
RMIT City The Melbourne City campus of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT University) is located in the city centre of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia. It is sometimes referred to as "RMIT City" and the "RMIT Quarter" of the city in the medi ...
campus of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (
RMIT University RMIT University, officially the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology,, section 4(b) is a public research university in Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city ...
). It consists of a grand meeting hall constructed in 1887, extended and renovated in 1996, providing a large upper hall, the lower hall as home to RMIT Gallery First Site, and a range of lecture theatres and seminar rooms. The 19th century hall was built by the
Ancient Order of Hibernians The Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH; ) is an Irish Catholic fraternal organization. Members must be male, Catholic, and either born in Ireland or of Irish descent. Its largest membership is now in the United States, where it was founded in New ...
, and known as Hibernian Hall. In the early 20th century it was put to a range of uses, until it was acquired by RMIT in 1957 The hall was named after the Storey family; John Storey (Junior), who founded the
RMIT Student Union Established in 1944, the RMIT University Student Union or RUSU, is the peak representative body for all students enrolled at RMIT University. The Student Union is independent of the university and operates under the direction of annually elec ...
in 1944, and Sir John Storey (Senior), who left a large bequest to RMIT in order to found the John Storey Junior Memorial Scholarships in memory of his son, whose studies were cut short in 1947 when he died of leukaemia at age 22.John Storey, RMIT University, Accessed 17 November 2008
/ref> A major refurbishment and addition was completed in 1996 to the design of
Ashton Raggatt McDougall ARM Architecture or Ashton Raggatt McDougall is an architectural firm with offices in Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide, Australia. The firm was founded in 1988 and has completed internationally renowned design work. ARM's founding directors were S ...
. The design of the new works is colourful and angular, employing
Penrose tiles A Penrose tiling is an example of an aperiodic tiling. Here, a ''tiling'' is a covering of two-dimensional space, the plane by non-overlapping polygons or other shapes, and ''aperiodic'' means that shifting any tiling with these shapes by any fin ...
to create the patterned facade and the refurbished interior of the original auditorium. The ground level of the original hall houses the RMIT First Site Gallery, which is operated by the
RMIT Union RMIT Link is a division of RMIT University around student life and historically was an unincorporated entity, the campus union of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It was formed in 1968 and cu ...
, and has a focus on
new media New media describes communication technologies that enable or enhance interaction between users as well as interaction between users and content. In the middle of the 1990s, the phrase "new media" became widely used as part of a sales pitch for ...
, as well as a cafe named re:vault.Launch (RMIT Union) - Exhibition Spaces


Architecture

One of the key influences in the design of the Storey Hall annex is the use of Penrose’s tiling pattern, developed by
Roger Penrose Sir Roger Penrose (born 8 August 1931) is an English mathematician, mathematical physicist, philosopher of science and Nobel Laureate in Physics. He is Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics in the University of Oxford, an emeritus fello ...
. The street
façade A façade () (also written facade) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a Loanword, loan word from the French language, French (), which means 'frontage' or 'face'. In architecture, the façade of a building is often t ...
is a version of the historic hall next door, its basic shapes of arch below and window above transformed by applying the Penrose pattern. The precast Penrose patterned tiles incorporate the impression of ruffles, keys and suspender belts to represent the
Suffragette A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members ...
s, who once occupied used the original hall. The colours of purple and green also reflect those of the women's liberation movement, with the green, used more extensively inside, referring to the Hibernian Hall’s construction by the Irish community of Melbourne. The foyer contains off-form
concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...
walls and columns with a curved stairwell. The main
auditorium An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances. For movie theatres, the number of auditoria (or auditoriums) is expressed as the number of screens. Auditoria can be found in entertainment venues, community ...
’s ceiling and large areas of wall are composed of geometric Penrose tile patterns in green and white. Storey Hall is both architecturally and historically significant as it has won numerous awards and combines both the historical and traditional aspects of the former Hibernian Hall to create a complex and daring building. Storey Hall could be said to represent the
Deconstructivism Deconstructivism is a movement of postmodern architecture which appeared in the 1980s. It gives the impression of the fragmentation of the constructed building, commonly characterised by an absence of obvious harmony, continuity, or symmetry. ...
strain of
postmodern Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by skepticism toward the " grand narratives" of moderni ...
architecture, and contrasts for instance with the more ordered and facade of
RMIT Building 8 RMIT Building 8 is an educational building, part of RMIT University's City campus in Melbourne, Victoria. It is located at 383 Swanston Street, on the northern edge of Melbourne's central business district. Completed in 1993, by Edmond and Corri ...
on the other side of Storey Hall. The Storey Hall refurbishment was one of the first buildings in Melbourne to use computer and
digital fabrication Digital modeling and fabrication is a design and production process that combines 3D modeling or computing-aided design (CAD) with additive and subtractive manufacturing. Additive manufacturing is also known as 3D printing, while subtractive manuf ...
, necessary to produce the complex yet mathematical elements of the architecture.


Gallery

File:Former hibernian hall swanston street melbourne.jpg, Hibernian Hall facade File:RMITStoryHallPlaque.jpg, Storey Hall plaque File:Green building swanston street melbourne.jpg, Storey Hall extension File:StoreyHall2006.jpg, Storey Hall extension File:StoryHallStairs.jpg, Looking up inside Storey Hall extension lobby File:Storeyhall3.JPG, Storey Hall extension entry on Swanston Street File:Storeyhall4.JPG, Storey Hall extension tiled elements File:Section drawing of Storey Hall.jpg, Section File:Plan drawing of Storey Hall.jpg, Plan


Awards

RAIA National Interior Architecture Award, 1996 RAIA Victorian Architecture Medal, 1996 RAIA William Wardell Award for Institutional Architecture, 1996 RAIA Marion Mahony Award for Interior Architecture, 1996 National Award – Dulux Colour Awards, 1996


Notes


References

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External links


Architecture Australia Storey Hall Review
{{DEFAULTSORT:Storey Hall RMIT University buildings Buildings and structures in Melbourne City Centre Cultural infrastructure completed in 1887 1887 establishments in Australia