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Australian Institute of Pharmacognosy

AIP Digital Campus

Coming soon

We are building a campus you will be able to walk into from anywhere. Take a book from the library shelf and read it, work at a bench in the teaching labs, and take a seat for a lecture. It is still a few years from opening, and we will share it here as it grows.

First preview: concept footage, artist’s impressionA 30 second first look at the design the Institute is working towards. Scenes will change as the campus is built.
Second preview: the library, labs and fieldViews of the campus as built today, with concept footage of a book opening in the library, extraction at the teaching bench and field botany in the forest. Each shot is labelled.

What you will be able to do

The campus is being built as a working place. Each room is planned to connect to the Institute’s real systems, so what you do there counts.

Use the library

Walk in, find a book on the shelf or at the catalogue terminal, and open it. Read it there or have it read aloud. Shelves will hold real records from the Institute’s library catalogue.

Learn at the bench

Teaching labs for wet chemistry, extraction, microscopy, TLC and HPLC, herbarium work and dispensing practice, laid out so workshops teach skills you can take into a real lab.

Attend classes

Sign in, walk across campus, find the room and take a seat. Lectures and workshops will run live or recorded, linked to enrolment, timetables and attendance.

Explore the grounds

A coastal campus with gardens, walking tracks and a village for the research staff near the sea.

The campus as it stands

These are views from inside the Digital Campus as it is built today. The campus keeps growing, and we will add new views as each space opens.

The campus from the air: the Institute building above a coastal village of low cabins, with hills and the sea behind
The Digital Campus todayThe campus on the coast, with the Institute building above the staff village.
The Institute building entrance, with timber screens, trees and a reflecting pool
The Digital Campus todayThe main entrance across the reflecting pool.
Looking down through the timber-louvred light well to planting on the floor below
The Digital Campus todayThe glazed light well, bringing daylight down into the library.
The library reading salon, with armchairs, a spiral stair and research shelving
The Digital Campus todayThe library reading salon.
Library shelving filled with bound volumes
The Digital Campus todayThe library stacks. Take a book down and it opens to read.
A teaching laboratory with microscopy benches and tall windows
The Digital Campus todayA microscopy teaching laboratory.
The teaching library and reading room on the upper floor
The Digital Campus todayThe teaching library on the upper floor.
The Institute facade, with timber fins over tropical planting
The Digital Campus todayTimber fins shade the Institute building.

Where it stands

The campus is being designed and built in-house by the Institute’s own team, using the Unreal Engine. Work of this size usually takes a large studio, so it will take time, and we expect it to be a couple of years before the doors open.

The views above are captured from the campus as it is built today. The preview films show the design we are working towards, and each shot is labelled as built today or as concept footage. Opening dates, access and enrolment will be announced here and in our newsletter first.

Read the full story in the AIP Journal: The Digital Campus.

Read the Journal article Get the newsletter About the Institute

Credits

Prepared by the Department of Community Outreach, Australian Institute of Pharmacognosy, 15/10/2026; second preview added 16/10/2026.

  • Dr Luke Iggulden, Chief Scientific Officer: conceived and designed the Digital Campus and the remote system it runs on, and directs the project
  • Jesse Kirby, Head of Community Outreach: brief, copy, editing of both previews and final review
  • Leah Bianchi, Web and Digital Designer: page build, layout and site-wide placement; Journal link and caption corrections (15/10/2026)
  • Theo Karras, Graphics: concept image grading, video title cards and thumbnails for both previews
  • Zoe Bennett, Social: teaser lines
  • Priya Raghunathan, Head of IT, and the IT team: the campus build and source renders, including the library, teaching lab and field botany renders for the second preview; fact check of the light well caption
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