The University of Wollongong’s Innovation Campus (iC) has been recognised for excellence again with the Enterprise 1 Building on the winners list in the Commercial Buildings Category ($20 million to $50 million) of the NSW Master Builders Association Excellence in Construction Awards.

Enterprise 1 is an innovative $40 million 10,000 square-metre building, constructed by Baulderstone and designed by Bates Smart architects, which houses some of UOW’s most valued collaborative partners.

It is the fifth building to open on the Innovation Campus, and has been designed so that commercial tenants can develop synergies with each other and close links with the University’s research institutes.

Acting Director of the Innovation Campus, Mr David Campbell, said Enterprise 1 with four levels of A grade office space and basement parking is home to the Australian Health Services Research Institute (ASHRI), BHP Billiton Illawarra Coal, IT companies CommScope, Tickets .com and MphasiS along with the NSW Cancer Council.

E1 is the result of close collaboration between the University of Wollongong and State and Federal Governments.

“UOW is delighted to see the effort of architects, builders, construction workers and its own staff recognised through awards success such as the Master Builders Association Construction Awards,” Mr Campbell said.

The largest Research Building on the iC, the federally-funded Australian Institute for Innovative Materials (AIIM) Processing and Devices Facility was also in the winners list for “Best use of Timber” with construction work again undertaken by Baulderstone.

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.

Mr Campbell said the latest awards followed the Innovation Campus being named earlier this year as the best new business and industrial park in Australia at the Property Council of Australia Innovation and Excellence Awards.