A Tough Act to Follow

Melbourne's new School of Drama building cuts a theatrical figure on its Southbank streetscape, thanks to a striking facade and whimsical design. The building's exterior resembles a surreal theatre set, with bold colours, contrasting textures, and dramatic curves.

As part of the Victorian College of Arts, the School of Drama has been designed especially for students wishing to study acting, directing, or animateuring. As well as classes and lectures, The School of Drama hosts live performances. Built over three levels, the A$10.5 million concrete, steel and metal clad building features a large performance studio on the ground floor, which is used by both the School and the Melbourne Theatre Company. Eight performance spaces, voice training studio, green room, tutorial rooms, four acting studios, offices, dressing rooms, ticket office and bar are provided.

Melbourne based architectural firm, CS+T, an established firm that has been in operation for 85 years, were responsible for the building's design. CS+T invited well known Australian architect Peter Corrigan of Edmond & Corrigan to head their design team for this project.

"It is a quite unique building," says Peter Corrigan. "The brief was to design a drama school specifically to deal with the education and aspirations of actors, reflecting the volatile and dynamic nature of performance in the 21st century. It's an attempt to bring the actor centre stage to reinforce self esteem and raise the idea of a significant profession that is acting."

The building's exterior incorporates a range of different materials, selected to provide varying textures to the facade. As well as painted precast concrete and perforated powder coated steel, four different LYSAGHT® profiles in COLORBOND® steel were used, including 800 square metres of LYSAGHT MINI ORB®, 630 square metres of LYSAGHT KLIP-LOK 406®, and 490 square metres of LYSAGHT TRIMDEK® in sumptuous COLORBOND® colours, such as Paperbark® and Deep Ocean®, as well as COLORBOND® Metallic steel in colours Conservatory® and Skybridge®.

The three dimensional design features random balconies with perforated metal balustrades, curved and skewed walls in an array of contrasting colours and a series of non-rectilinear windows.

"I've used LYSAGHT® products on a number of award winning jobs, including Building 8 at RMIT and the Niagara Galleries," says Peter Corrigan. "It's a product I have a lot of experience with. I value LYSAGHT® products because they are Australian made, and there are excellent and specific quality controls in the products' manufacture."

"The high quality COLORBOND® steel finish, combined with the expanding colour range, is also an advantage," he continues. "In addition, the product is lightweight, easily adaptable, easily transportable and quickly erected. These factors are all benefits in today's building industry, where site erection is a considerable cost component of a project."

The spectacular structure was built by established Melbourne builders, Kane Constructions. According to the Project Manager, Geoff Purcell, the unusual composition of the building's skewed walls, randomly placed balconies, and abstract geometrical windows made the project a challenging one.

"There were difficulties in achieving the desired outcomes of the architects, particularly the angles and the geometries of the balustrades," says Geoff. "However, we worked with the architects quite closely to achieve the result. There were also issues relating to access around the building and safety for site personnel and the public, which were very successfully dealt with."

"The other significant issue was that the client wanted to hold a performance within the building before it was completed," explains Geoff. "This meant that we had to work to hand over a component of the building while we continued work on other areas. Fortunately, this went off without a hitch!"

All cladding and roofing for the project was installed by local business, Night Owl Plumbing. "Night Owl Plumbing was very fastidious with the job, and the LYSAGHT® sheeting is a very good product," says Geoff. "We ended up with an excellent result."