Brisbane, QLD, Australia
2015 - 2018
QUT Peter Coaldrake Education Precinct
Conceived as a central hub between the three campuses of Brisbane’s Queensland University of Technology, our design for this new academic center prioritizes smart technology and biophilic design, connecting indoor and outdoor spaces through an open, flexible atrium that collapses the boundary between indoor built space and native landscape outdoors.
Layering classroom, research, and office facilities atop an airy ground-level atrium, Queensland University of Technology’s six-level, 11,000 m² Peter Coaldrake Education Precinct frames upper academic spaces around an active social foundation.
Positioned between the university library and a main thoroughfare in QUT’s Kelvin Grove Campus, the building has an open, ground-level that extends its atrium to campus traffic, drawing visitors and encouraging new connections within. In this sense, the building serves as an extension of natural pedestrian pathways throughout campus, while also providing an appealing, versatile space for academic and social gathering.
“The large, terraced atrium between the library and the new building is designed to enhance wayfinding on campus. It creates a very visible connection into the library and the surrounding planted landscape; collecting teachers, researchers, and students on the same level in this social core.”
Jacob Kurek
Managing Director
Designed as a transitional zone between social and learning spaces and a fluid segway between the natural and built environment, the atrium traces the hill that the building sits on by means of large, stepped height changes. The abundant natural light and greenery brought into the atrium blur the distinction between indoors and outdoors, establishing the space as an active crossroads of campus life as well as a destination in itself.
“We wanted to create an environment that supports many different ways to learn. Flexibility was key here, and we planned for a variety of learning situations and new teaching methods,” says Jakob Kurek, Global Design Director.
Throughout the building, the connection between indoor and outdoor spaces embodies an emphasis on biophilic design: the large green atrium at the heart of the structure draws students in to inviting social spaces while spilling plant life into the wider campus. With its broad, planted outdoor staircase, designed as both a pedestrian thoroughfare and social space, the building’s activation outdoors lends itself to and elevates the activity within.
Incorporating a local perspective
In designing the flow of green spaces throughout the project site, we collaborated with Australian landscape architects Taylor Cullity Lethlean, whose designs explore the relationship between the Australian people and the natural landscape. For this project, their perspective ensured that the building’s green spaces reflect an authentic, artistic extension of native Australian flora. Viewed from a distance, a natural gradient of green space appears: vegetation from adjacent hillsides spreads into planted terraces lining the building’s outdoor staircase, and then through the glass façade into the atrium’s hanging vines and stepped gardens.
Emphasis on smart technology
Visible through the glass façade is the luminous form of a LED sphere five meters in diameter, suspended over the atrium floor. The installation, along with wall-mounted displays controllable by students, give the Faculty of Education building a colorful local identity and embody the University’s commitment to creativity in technology.
“The building is purpose-designed for the new generations of students and staff who have ever-changing attitudes and expectations about learning and their engagement with technology,” says John Thong, Director of Brisbane-based Wilson Architects. “Individually and collectively, the learning and teaching spaces support future educational models that are blended, technology-enabled and have a greater focus on the varying needs of needs of individual learners.”
Just as smart technology has defined the building’s social and academic spaces, it has also shaped the building’s fundamental design. Self-shading, overlapping volumes and angled exterior louvers serve to reduce solar heating within, reducing the building’s overall reliance on energy-intensive climate control systems. These sun shading measures are anticipated to reduce the building’s solar heating intake by up to 40%, supporting the project’s goal of a Green Star Level 5 sustainability rating from the Green Building Council of Australia.
Contact
All contacts
Viggo Haremst
Design Director, International Projects, Partner
Jacob Kurek
Managing Director
Head of Tall Buildings, Architect
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