Melbourne gets its orange segments inspiration at Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music at Monash University

Melbourne gets its orange segments inspiration at Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music at Monash University
Jonathan ChancellorOctober 25, 2012

Images of the new Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music at Monash University have been released.

The building will be the first project in the southern hemisphere of Moshe Safdie, director of international firm Safdie Architects, which has undertaken the massive Marina Bay Sands resort in Singapore.

The school of music will include teaching and practice spaces, an 800-seat concert hall, jazz club and a recording studio.

The exterior will be constructed of reinforced concrete with inlaid stone, contrasting with the concert hall enclosure which is stainless steel with "concrete ribs".

Construction is due to start in 2014 and be completed by mid 2016.

He told The Australian his sculptural exterior may resemble the shells of the Sydney Opera House, but that Melbourne's latest concert venue will be its own building.

The Australian arts reporter Matthew Westwood noted its shell-like design resembled inpart Safdie's Kauffman arts centre in Kansas City, Missouri (pictured above), and the architect ackowledged some people think it recalls Joern Utzon's opera house, too.

"People have said it reminds them of it, but I think the geometries are quite different," he told Westwood.

"It's the reaching up to the sky that people associate with the two."

Jonathan Chancellor

Jonathan Chancellor is one of Australia's most respected property journalists, having been at the top of the game since the early 1980s. Jonathan co-founded the property industry website Property Observer and has written for national and international publications.

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