Faculty of Architecture Building and Planning Melbourne School of Design

Workplace Planning and Design

Places for People and Organizations

The Workplace Planning and Design program provides professionals with a deeper understanding of how organisations work, what drives their success, how strategic change is implemented, and the importance of a well designed workplace.

The contemporary workplace is increasingly being recognised as essential to organizational performance. A significant part of people’s discretionary effort relates to their sense of engagement with their work and the environment in which they operate. At the same time, there is greater focus on how an organization can benefit from workplace investment, by attracting and retaining key staff, achieving goals of cultural change, improving service delivery outcomes, and creating a sense of place that is shared by its people.

 

Courses Available

The courses are offered full-time, part-time or a combination of full-time and part-time. Research degrees with a focus on the workplace are also available.

 

Why Choose Workplace Planning and Design at the University of Melbourne?

Our postgraduate program in Workplace Design is the only one of its kind in Australia to cover the inter-relationship between workplace culture, organizational behaviour, facilities management, and design. Whether applicants come from a workplace change, property, or design background, they'll benefit from gaining a deeper understanding of how organisations work, what drives their success, and the way strategic change can be supported by spatial planning and design.

The courses are characterized by a project-based learning environment which draws on a multi-disciplinary core of academic staff and visiting colleagues with substantial national and international experience. All classes will involve academics and practitioners.

 

From Faculty Staff

 

From Industry

 

Visiting Professors

The Faculty attracts a regular flow of national and international experts in the field, including:

 

Fields of Study

The course addresses a range of workplace types including commercial offices, health care, and education.

 

Course Flexibilities

The required faculty subjects, including studio projects, will be offered in intensive blocks and provide a great deal of flexibility for students wanting to balance work, lifestyle and career development. It is anticipated that some students from interstate will commute for the intensive sessions.

There will be:

 

Single Subjects

Lecture based subjects and workplace projects can also be taken individually outside of a degree as part of the University’s Community Access Program.

 

Short Courses

Some intensive sessions of the subjects and the master class component of the workplace projects are available for professionals who can meet the shared learning objective of the courses. Interested practitioners should contact the faculty for topics and scheduling.

 

Your Career

The workplace planning and design program is ideal for people who want to:

Course Objectives

The Postgraduate Certificate in Strategic Workplace Planning allows students to extend their skills in workplace strategic planning and evaluation and their knowledge of the forces for change in contemporary organisations.

The Post Graduate Diploma in Workplace Planning and Design allows the application of the skills and knowledge acquired through the subjects of the Graduate Certificate to a given workplace planning and design project.

The Master of Workplace Design allows students to:

Course Structure

The normal course of study is for students to first take the Postgraduate Certificate (50 points) in Strategic Workplace Planning followed by either the Postgraduate Diploma in Workplace Planning and Design (100 points) or the Master of Workplace Planning and Design (100 points).

Course structures may be varied with the permission of the course coordinator.

 

Further Information and Entry Requirements

Core Subjects

Case Study in Workplace Design

This subject provides an opportunity for students to investigate, under supervision, an issue or approved topic of enquiry in the field of workplace planning or design with local relevance. The emphasis will be on relating the findings of a literature search of the topic with locally acquired information through site work and enquiry. Students will need to identify and present the issues and concerns of the case after pilot investigations, and then extend the investigation into the full scope required to complete the case study.

 

Evolution of the Workplace

This subject will explore the changes in the form and nature of work sectors over modern times  with an emphasis on  the Health, Office and Education sectors. The exploration will show how the form and nature of accommodation has changed in response to various economic, social, cultural and technological factors affecting work and its spatial organisation. The scope of changes in the nature of work  will include the theories, models and frameworks that relate to: Changing work practices, including managerial, financial, and organisational structure; Industrial relations; Worker rights; Workplace amenity; Organisational Ecology; Impacts of technological change to workplace practices, including information management, communications, machinery and equipment; Urban development and financial aspects of workplace accommodation procurement, including development incentives and investment and leasing practices.

 

Lived Workplace Project

This studio subject will address a personal topic that will link theory and practice by applying theories, models and frameworks into a Workplace Design or Planning outcome. Normally, this studio is linked to the subject Case Study in Workplace Design. The studio will operate as a laboratory in which the design work is to progress by rigorous analysis, research, study of precedent and experimentation, based on well-researched theory and experience.

 

Managing the Workplace Design Process

This subject will critically examine theories, models and frameworks of planning and design decision making, generically, and in their application to the design of the workplace. The focus will be on the strategic management of the process of planning and design of the workplace, including organisation of the project team and their responsibilities; cross-disciplinary expectations of architecture; development of an appropriate methodology; systematic gathering and use of relevant project information, and, the communication of desired outcomes for a particular project. 

The premise of the learning is, firstly, that innovative responses to the complexity of the changing workplace result from creative leadership of the planning and design processes, and secondly, the act of designing is an heuristic process as well as a problem identification tool. Students will explore strategies for using design thinking as a method of inquiry to encourage creative and innovative thinking by all participants at all stages of the workplace project. They will investigate procedures for the discovery and application of knowledge for effective decision-making about the provision of appropriate workplaces. The subject content will be explored through critical texts and particular case studies in the areas of health, education and office workplaces.

 

Strategic Workplace Project

This studio subject will address the strategic, or level, of designing (or planning) that will generate the spatial planning and design concepts within which the more detailed design has to fit. Students will be expected to seek innovative responses to the complexities of the situation and circumstances posed by the project set for the studio. The students will be required to test their strategic propositions by developing detailed designs for one typical and one atypical component of the project brief. The studio will operate as a laboratory in which the design work is to progress by rigorous analysis, research, study of precedent and experimentation, based on well-researched theory and experience.

 

Workplace Design Briefing and Evaluation

This subject critically examines theories, models, frameworks and ethics of the design brief (program), design thinking and their role in the provision and evaluation of effective workplaces. The design program is developed as the policy and management links between any planned need for changes in the accommodation available to an organisation and the continuing benefits from its use. Emphasis will be on buildings being the accommodation resource that supports the work of an organisation. The focus of the learning will be on the full range of people involved in the work, the places they need and the processes in which they are involved. The role of a building as the accommodation resource will be balanced against its other roles, firstly as part of the organisation's property commitments; as a physical facility to be managed for optimal performance in support of the work of the occupants; and as an image of the organisation and what it stands for. The benefits and use of performance and prescription based design programming will be explored, as will the use of activity analysis and issue resolution as the prime organisers of the design programming work.

 

Contact

Graduate Course Administrator
Architecture Building & Planning
The University of Melbourne
Victoria 3010 Australia

T: (+61 3) 8344 8742
F: (+61 3) 8344 5532
E: abp-graduateschool@unimelb.edu.au

 

top of page