Gehry's UTS Building Opens
John Hill
4. February 2015
Photo: Andrew Worssam, courtesy of UTS
On Monday Frank Gehry's design for the Dr Chau Chak Wing Building at the University of Technology, Sydney, home to the UTS Business School, opened its doors.
The building is one of ten buildings opening in 2015 that we highlighted in our year-end review from December, and so far reviews are mixed. Australia's Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove, who opened the building on Monday, called it "the most beautiful squashed brown paper bag I’ve ever seen," a descriptive moniker that has become the unofficial name of the 14-story building that is clad in 320,000 custom-made brown bricks.
Gehry said at the opening, "It’s a container, maybe it’s a brown paper bag, but it is flexible on the inside. There’s a lot of room for change and movement which I think in the world today is essential." The video below, produced by UTS, gives a peek inside some of the flexible spaces that were designed for spontaneous interaction between classes, as many higher education buildings are being designed today.