Bendigo TAFE | Bendigo Kangan Institute

The Bendigo Kangan Institute embarked on a significant redevelopment of its Bendigo TAFE City Campus. The refurbishment of the deteriorating heritage-listed buildings brings new life to the previously outdated and impractical education spaces. The heritage buildings and the new three-story structure enrich the student experience and reinvigorate the campus.

The main entrance to the campus is a welcome to the new space, with indoor and outdoor quiet zones for individual study and social and community environments for staff and students. The practical spaces for hands-on and collaborating learning experiences created unique challenges for the design team. The refurbished campus is home to a new bakery and restaurant facilities with banks of 15-volt coffee machines, hair, beauty, and barbering salon, library, rehabilitation gym, life skills laboratory, training cafe, and indigenous education center.

The Bendigo TAFE City Campus redevelopment champions the rich history of this regional Victorian town, highlighting the site’s industrial roots. The balance between designing new innovative teaching spaces with the revitalized heritage buildings was well considered by the design team ensuring there was a natural flow and integration woven into the precinct. One of the key challenges with this large project was integrating the services into the heritage buildings while ensuring the operational aspects were current, practical, and seamless. The staged project delivery enabled the handover of various buildings back to the client for early occupation.