In a joint research project between Victorian government Department of Treasury and Finance and RMIT University, Antarctica was the key consultant developing designs for distributed workplaces, and testing their benefits. Antarctica worked with SV, the DTF, RMIT’s DRI and Centre for Design on the prototype designs in a range of speculative locations, including the Bundoora RMIT campus.
HUB Victoria provides a network of flexible spaces for work throughout Victoria; located within commercial, civic and transport centres. The spaces of a HUB are shared across Victorian Government departments and agencies, supporting work from home, mobile projects, work in transit, and are able to host workshops and small conferences.
Outside of government operation, HUB spaces are intended to be available to the public for community and educational use.
HUB Victoria is an initiative to reduce the time, costs and pollution of commuting by supplying a wider array of locations where government workers can undertake work. The flexibility of work locations provided by hubs has the potential to support a more distributed population, relieving the congestion and pressure upon existing metropolitan centres.
Antarctica and the DRI explored this potential through further research into regionally located hubs for work and learning.