The University of Wollongong’s Australian Institute for Innovative Materials building was this week awarded the 2011 Australian Timber Design Awards People Choice award.

Better known for its research success, the Australian Institute for Innovative Materials (AIIM) facility which houses two of the University of Wollongong’s flagship research groups – the Intelligent Polymer Research Institute and the Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials – was selected in an online poll, winning by an overwhelming 2,500 vote majority.

Located at the University of Wollongong’s Innovation Campus, the timber building links two state-of-the-art research buildings and houses the University’s Electron Microscopy Centre.

The timber design is not only aesthetically pleasing but it is also highly functional as the electron microscopes that it contains are highly sensitive to their operating environment. Continuous structural elements must be non-ferrous so as not to create electromagnetic interference and this functional requirement was the reason that a timber structure was chosen for its design.

Executive Director of the AIIM Facility and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), Professor Judy Raper, said that it was fantastic that the architects, SKM-S2F, were able to design a highly functional yet attractive building to house the University’s electron microscopes.

“The AIIM facility is a state-of-the-art research facility housing internationally renowned researchers so it is attracting strong interest from the research community and current and future industry partners.

“The purpose-built timber electron microscope facility never fails to impress people when they visit so we are really pleased that it was the popular choice of people voting in this year’s Australian timber design awards”, Professor Raper said.

The extension to the Australian Institute for Innovative Materials facility which adds a $43.8 million Processing and Devices Facility funded by the Federal Government is in the final stages of fit-out and will be Australia’s first multi-functional materials facility with the capacity to scale-up lab-based discoveries and help transform them into commercial reality.

Researchers at AIIM are undertaking research in areas including clean energy technologies, electric vehicle battery technologies, health and medical bionics and innovative new materials that will help lower the cost of production and improve the performance of electronic and other devices.

Click here to see more photos of the award winning AIIM building.