The proposed maker space is seen as a core element in a broad strategy for the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning to improve student accessible areas in the Baldwin Spencer building to become a secondary hub for Melbourne School of Design (MSD) students.

Two primary functions were set out for the maker space. Firstly, it had to be flexible and provide a variety of low-risk model making activities and associated studying activities. Secondly, it had to provide a variety of desperately needed storage options for student models and supplies. Finally, the space had to be reconfigurable to cater for other aligned functions, such as design workshops, presentations or exhibitions, (during low usage times i.e. outside of semester).

To deliver these functions a catalogue of storage/work space hybrids have been developed that provide various model making and studying facilities that respond directly to the ways students make models, learned from the MSD’s various workshop facilities in the recent past and by studying successful spaces of other institutions.