engineering

UTS Central

UTS Central is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand UTS Central rather than just read about it. In short: UTS Central, also known as Building 2, is the building housing the Faculty of Law and UTS Library at the University of Technology Sydney. It is the final building to be opened under the A$1 billion City Campus Master Plan.

Key takeaways

UTS Central belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect UTS Central to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of UTS Central from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

UTS Central, also known as Building 2, is the building housing the Faculty of Law and UTS Library at the University of Technology Sydney. It is the final building to be opened under the A$1 billion City Campus Master Plan. The building is designed by Francis-Jones Morehen Thorp (FJMT), with elements of an original podium design by Lacoste+Stevenson in association with DJRD. Construction was overseen by head contractor Richard Crookes Constructions. The building is located next to the UTS Tower in Ultimo. It opened in August 2019.

Design The building is located next to the UTS tower and opposite Central Park in Broadway. The glass-encased UTS Central is made up of a dual design, with a 10-level twisted tower sitting above a 5-level podium and two underground floors. The UTS Central design is notable for its elegant, curved lines, which provide a complementary contrast to the modular, utilitarian design of the Brutalist UTS Tower. UTS Central is linked directly with the UTS Tower through pedestrian links on levels 3–6.

Double helix staircase An intertwining double helix staircase made from Australian steel and curved glass connects levels 4 to 7. The double ribbon spiral design originated with architects FJMT and is inspired by the double helix structure of a DNA molecule, a reminder of how breakthroughs in science and technology have transformed our world. The double helix is one of four ‘architectural’ stairways in the building. All of the helical staircases in the UTS Central building, including the double helix, were designed in collaboration with a leading Australian stair designer and manufacturer.

Glass facade The building's façade comprises around 3600 glass pieces made from 48 types of glass, the largest measuring 6 by 2.3 metres (19.7 by 7.5 ft) and weighing almost 700 kilograms (1,500 lb).

Key features

UTS Library The UTS Library relocated from Building 5 to UTS Central in November 2019. The relocation allows the UTS Library to be directly connected to the library retrieval system (LRS) located below the Alumni Green. Sitting above the reading room, the library spans over three levels granting views out over Alumni Green; Level 8 offers access to two outdoor terraces and Level 9 is for silent studies. It also has two public exhibition areas, one outside and one inside.

UTS Reading Room The design of the UTS Reading Room was inspired by traditional scholarly spaces, with a triple-height atrium opening to a large skylight and an uninterrupted glass façade overlooking Alumni Green.

Hive Superlab Located below ground on level 1, the Hive Superlab can accommodate up to 270 students and contains specialist audio-visual facilities (including bone conduction headphones) that allow seven classes to run simultaneously.

Classrooms The two largest classrooms hold up to 350 students, while a third accommodates 198 students.

Faculty of Law The upper levels of UTS Central will be home to the Faculty of Law. It will accommodate offices for the Law faculty, student areas and centres including AntiSlavery Australia and the UTS-UNSW Australasian Legal Information Institute. A moot court and two trial courts with modern technologies found in Australian courts will be available for law students.

Public food court A large food court is located on level 3 with 440 seats and eight food outlets.

Sustainability The building is targeting a 5 star Green Star rating from the Green Building Council of Australia. UTS Central has been developed with many sustainability features including;

Intelligent sensors connected to the building management system adjust heating, cooling and ventilation based on the amount of occupants in the building Recycled water used for toilet flushing and irrigation of the building's landscaping Adjustable louvre blinds which are connected to the building management system control the amount of sunlight hitting the glass facade Chilled water supplied from the nearby Central Park provides cooling for the air-conditioning at UTS Central and other buildings

Gallery

See also Buildings and architecture of Sydney University of Technology Sydney

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with UTS Central

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what UTS Central claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to UTS Central before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about UTS Central ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of UTS Central

In research: UTS Central appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses UTS Central in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: UTS Central is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Buildings and structures completed in 2019, Buildings and structures in Sydney, Neo-futurist architecture in Australia, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for UTS Central outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study UTS Central in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what UTS Central means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain UTS Central out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is UTS Central in simple terms?

Why does UTS Central matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study UTS Central?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on UTS Central.