The building is widely recognised nationally as being distinctively Melbourne in character and idea. It was described by a national architectural commentator as a building that `thinks it’s a city’. It demurs to Melbourne’s built past: memories of Walter Burley Griffin, the Manchester Unity, the Block Arcade, the Shrine et alia are fleetingly seen in its aesthetic. The building engages the idea of uniting opposites. It presents itself to the city on its own terms. The building’s front, side and rear elevations create a whole from fragments and a collage of design 'ideas’. The aim was to delight and break down the dominant and seamless city-wall ‘mood’ RMIT presented on Swanston Street. The character of the building had to be a positive educational influence. It contains the University Library, an enlarged Student Union, the Faculty of the Constructed Environment (the Schools of Architecture, Interior Design, Landscape, Building, Planning & Policy, and a Centre for Design) and the Departments of Fashion and Mathematics. It is a fragment of the University that nonetheless stands for the whole. “The new Building 8 is a multi level education exchange. Building 8, RMIT Melbourne, 1993, Edmond & Corrigan Pty Ltd (Design Architects) in association with The Demaine Partnership Pty Ltd
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