ANU Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics - New Observatory, Mt Stromlo

Client Australian National University

Location Mt Stromlo

The ANU Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics (RSAA) is located at the Mount Stromlo Observatory in Canberra, originally established in 1924. It forms a world-respected community of researchers exploring space and endeavouring to advance the observational and theoretical frontiers of astronomy and astrophysics.
The new Observatory Base Station building houses an automated telescope used for tracking of satellites in Low Earth Orbit, Geostationary Orbit and Deep Space for the purpose of laser communications. The building comprises a PC2-rated clean room laboratory at ground level and a state-of-the-art telescope housed in a motorised dome above. The workspace design features radially arranged worktables to ‘mirror’ telescopic images and streamline data capture, while a radial stair leads to the upper servicing platform.
The new building has been designed in consideration of the functional requirements and prevailing architectural language of the buildings at the Mount Stromlo Observatory which are predominantly simple in form and white in colour, and will intentionally blend into the built landscape that has developed on the observatory site.