Home > The Tonsley Model >

A Designed Community

Tonsley was designed with you in mind.

Created for creatives, its spaces and approach to life, work and play excite and embolden. This is where great ideas will turn into reality.

Tonsley’s success as an innovation district derives from the quality of the relationships between its partners and its unique design promoting a vibrant and inclusive destination. There are places to relax, meet and exchange ideas, encouraging collaboration. The Town Square at the heart of Tonsley provides that central meeting place.

There’s a win-win for educational institutions and industry arising from that collaborative culture of universities, students and businesses working together on creative developments. At the completion of the redevelopment, Flinders University and TAFE SA will have over 8,500 students studying and training at Tonsley per year.

The 1,800-strong residential precinct at Tonsley is developing into a premier location to live with 900 homes incorporating the latest environmental and design guidelines and views overlooking green open spaces.

Design Excellence

Tonsley Innovation District’s design excellence has been acknowledged with a series of awards.

2 Winners, 2018 Property Council of Australia Awards

Tonsley has taken out the top gong at the prestigious 2018 Property Council of Australia (PCA)/Rider Levett Bucknall Innovation & Excellence Awards for South Australia held at Adelaide Oval in April, being named the State Development of the Year.

Tonsley was honoured again at the national PCA awards the following month, receiving the KONE Award for Best Development Innovation.

PCA Chief Executive Ken Morrison said Tonsley was a “technological test bed” that was evolving from a manufacturing site to a collaborative working and living space for students, researchers and businesses,”

“South Australia’s future hinges on its ability to create jobs and attract more people to the state,” he said. “By cultivating high-value manufacturing, leading-edge research and emerging industries, Tonsley shows how innovative development can drive jobs, investment and economic opportunity.”

2 Winners, 2017 Good Design Awards

Tonsley took home two prestigious awards and was amongst only a handful of entries in the running for the coveted Good Design Award of the Year at the 2017 Good Design Awards Ceremony held in Sydney.

The Good Design Award for Best Overall for Architectural Design was awarded to Tonsley for displaying the highest level of design excellence in the architectural design category.

Tonsley received the Good Design Award for Sustainability for its commitment to the highest level of excellence in sustainable design practices. The Award is limited to only one recipient that in the judge’s opinion, will have a positive impact in promoting excellence in sustainable design.

Winner, 2016 UDIA National and SA Awards for Excellence, Urban Development Institute of Australia

After taking out the UDIA Award for Excellence in South Australia in November 2016, Tonsley was recommended for judging at national level in the Urban Renewal category.

In April 2017, Tonsley was nationally acknowledged for its commitment to environmental, heritage and engineering considerations when it won the UDIA National for Excellence at the UDIA National Congress in Perth.

2 Winners, 2016 National Architecture Awards, Australian Institute of Architects

Tonsley took home both awards it was in the running for, out of a field of 14 award categories and 79 shortlisted projects overall:

The jury described the Drill Core Reference Library building as a “pragmatic and poetic work of architecture”, and also said the “MAB is a model for mixed-use developments and can act as a framework for other projects to recognise the opportunities that lie in industrial heritage.”

7 Winners, 2016 SA Architecture Awards, Australian Institute of Architects

Four projects have collected seven architectural awards across education, commercial, heritage, urban design and sustainability with the jury describing Tonsley as a “unique place with a strong identity for South Australia to celebrate its manufacturing history”.

The judging panel for the Award for Sustainable Architecture stated that “although still a work in progress, the Tonsley Main Assembly Building and Pods is already internationally recognised as a model for environmentally sustainable design and building practices”.

Winner, 2015 WAN Award for Adaptive Reuse, World Architecture News

The jury remarked that Tonsley’s winning Main Assembly Building and Pods identified benefits to retaining the existing structure, resulting in an urban renewal project without precedent.

Over 60 projects were entered from around the world, with Tonsley the only project from Australia in the final six.

Winner, 2013 SA Landscape Architecture Awards for Planning, Australian Institute of Landscape Architects

The panel assessing the nominations said urban form and public realm protocol for Tonsley “establishes a clear way forward for all management and project teams.

Targeted, direct and creative in its planning approach, this protocol extends existing practice and provides a promising beginning for the entire development process.”

Winner, 2015 National Building Excellence Award in Design, Master Builders Association of South Australia

Flinders University‘s 16,000sqm building brings together education, innovation, business and commercial start-up ventures in one precinct, with a key aim of stimulating economic growth in industries of the future.

“Very high level of finishes and complex detailing” were credited by the Association in the Excellence in Commercial/Industrial Building category in the 2015 awards.

Finalist, 2015 Property Council of Australia and Rider Levett Bucknall Innovation and Excellence Awards

The $120 million TAFE SA Sustainable Industries Education Centre (SIEC) has also been credited for its sustainable design and excellence.

The Property Council of Australia named the SIEC as a finalist in two categories — Best Public Building and Best Sustainable Development: Existing Buildings — and acknowledged it as an “educational tool that demonstrates clean technologies, inspires and intrigues those who observe its inner workings”.