Celebrating discord: Arata Isozaki's library, humanities and administration building at Bond University, Queensland, 1987-1989

Bond University, a private institution in South-East Queensland, was established by tycoon Alan Bond in 1988. The masterplan for the university's purpose-built Gold Coast campus and the design of several of the individual buildings were undertaken by Daryl Jackson and Associates, while the campus's flagship building, the Library, Humanities and Administration Building, known colloquially as the Arch, was designed by the Japanese architect Arata Isozaki. In its promotional materials, Bond celebrates both its campus and its flagship building. This paper critiques and analyses Jackson's campus plan and Isozaki's Arch. It reveals paradoxes in the design of both. To unravel those embedded in the building, the paper draws from Isozaki's own writings, particularly his comments about depression, discord and architecture. If this is an architecture of discord, then what are the implications for Bond University's celebration of it? The paper shows that there are multiple interpretations to be gleaned from Jackson's formal, Arcadian plan and Isozaki's Mannerist architectural language, with Australia's first private university finding a different set of metaphors within the historical architectural and urban references.