Project Overview

The Melbourne Conservatorium has relocated from its historic home in Parkville to new state-of-the-art teaching, learning, rehearsal and performance spaces at The Ian Potter Southbank Centre, designed by leading architect John Wardle and supported by The Ian Potter Foundation, The Myer Foundation and family and the Victorian Government.

Project Commissioner

University of Melbourne, Victorian College of the Arts

Project Creator

John Wardle Architects

Project Brief

The new home of the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music celebrates the activities of music rehearsal and practice – a green room for Melbourne's arts precinct.

Outwardly focused and inviting, the building balances the singular concentration required of students with the camaraderie of engaging with others. The building is a place to rub shoulders with fellow music students, and the artistic milieu of the wider campus and precinct.

Project Innovation/Need

The activity of the students within the new building will be brought to the street and campus with choreographed views that are revealed as building corners unfold or a window allows for a privileged view of the process of rehearsal. A conversation emerges between the curious passer-by and the rehearsing musician, encouraging interaction between the musician and their community.

Multiple vantage points in the new conservatorium allow for appreciating the inner workings of music education. The learning and rehearsal spaces, both small and large, are interspersed with bell-shaped portholes, hinged panels and disguised windows that generously exhibit the activity within. A large oculus window into the ground floor orchestral rehearsal space unlocks the traditional vault of music education to reveal its inner realm.


With a student cohort that has increased by two-thirds since 2010, the new Conservatorium will allow students and faculty to teach, rehearse, perform and record like never before.

Currently, the faculty has more than 40,000 campus visitors a year and hosts more than 220 events, which will now be expanded with a public program of events at the Conservatorium that will enrich Melbourne’s thriving cultural scene.