MINIMAL INTERVENTION

My approach to this project was inspired by The Minimal Intervention by Lucius Burkhardt, which I was reading when the brief was released. This text guided my self-imposed design approach of restraint that shaped every decision. I saw the brief not just as a task to add, but an opportunity to subtract, advocate and repurpose.

Located on the Forgan Smith forecourt, this project merges the neighbouring Mod West building (soon to be decommissioned) with the UQ Art Museum, returning to its original function as a graduation hall. My proposal is to carefully disassemble the Mod West, reusing its structural components uncut, and reconstructing them inside the UQ Art Museum. This adaptive reuse

maintains the original Robin Boyd building while radically transforming the interior, exposing the stark contrast between the raw, modern intervention and the permanence of Brisbane’s concrete history.

My process was research-driven. Days spent in the Fryer Library and begging UQ Properties and Facilities gave me access to archived Mayne Hall plans (drawn by Robin Boyd himself!!) and structural as-built plans of the Mod West. This meant I could design using the real dimensions of the Mod West steel components. I felt that it was important that this not be a “theoretical reuse”... it had to be materially precise.

I somewhat disagreed with the brief proposing that UQ needs yet another building to be built to have a great hall. So, for me this project became a platform to demonstrate how adaptive reuse can offer genuinely sustainable, context-specific alternatives. The result is an experience: a spatial dialogue between eras, material legacy, and architectural ideologies.