1. Staff Hub
  2. Melbourne Connect Hub

Staff hub

    Melbourne Connect Hub

Block and Stack

Please note the video of the Melbourne Connect block and stack is a high level overview only.
It is not an exact representation of all teams nor each desk/area that each team has been allocated.  
Actual team desk allocations will be issued to relevant Team Leads and MC Ambassadors shortly as part of the Seating Allocation process

The block and stack is one of many interdependent activities required to successfully relocate 800+ staff and students to Melbourne Connect. The block and stack process is the allocation of teams to floors (stack) and then to specific locations on the floor (block).

In order to complete the block and stack, a significant amount of data and information was gathered over the last 12 months through various sources and activities:

  • Validated team headcount via the rollout of a new digital space management tool ‘Serraview’
  • Melbourne Connect FEIT Accommodation Principles
  • Melbourne Connect FEIT Block and Stack Guidelines
  • Monthly block and stack meetings with attendees from CIS and EMI including Heads of Schools
  • Team Review Meetings - completed with team leads and MC Ambassadors across the 45 groups relocating to MC, information gathered at the team reviews included:
    • adjacency preferences – preferred teams to be located next to, and any teams that can’t be located next to next to due to conflict of interest etc
    • synergies between teams
    • an understanding of each teams workstyle (i.e. focused, collaborative, quiet, noisy etc.)
    • the level of meeting room usage
    • 95% of the primary adjacency requests were accommodated

For more information on adjacencies, click here (opens PDF).

  • Confirmed and prospective industry tenants, to maximise the synergy opportunities to locate relevant FEIT teams on the same floors
  • ‘Anchored’ teams, located throughout MC that requires these teams to be fixed to specific floor due to the infrastructure and/or built environment required for these groups:
    • Infrastructure Team (Facilities, IT, HSW) – level 1
    • CIS - Head of School Office and CIS Student Hub – level 3
    • Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) – level 5
    • Office of the Dean – level 7
    • Flexible Project Space – level 8
  • Block & Stack was taken to FEIT School Executive for review and approval

Touchdown Desks have been introduced onto each floor. There are typically 6 touchdown desks provided in a central position on each floor, which are shared, communal, non-bookable workpoints available to all teams in the building. It is expected that these desks will be used primarily by short-term visitors as well as staff and students who have not been allocated a desk.

For a further breakdown of the block and stack, click here (opens PDF).

Next Steps

A seating allocation process will begin in September whereby team leads/managers will allocate staff and students to workpoints (i.e. workstations/desks or offices) within the ‘block’ or area they have been designated. The seating allocation will then enable the commencement of the Spring Clean & Pack activity of existing spaces.

The Spring Clean & Pack activity will begin in October with the Doug McDonnell building prioritised, in order to hand back the building prior to Christmas to the incoming Student Precinct project.

Restricted access to campus due to COVID-19 has impacted the ability for staff and students to carry out their own clean & pack activities. The packing will therefore be completed over Zoom by our Relocation Project Managers (P2M) and soon to be appointed Removalist Contractor. Once cartons have been packed, they will be labelled with the desk location of the individual at Melbourne Connect – determined through the seating allocation process. Everyone will have the opportunity to collect personal belongings through a ‘Click & Collect’ program.

Further details of the above next steps will be communicated in the coming weeks.