The University of Queensland has selected Lyons Architecture and M3 Architecture to design its new Sustainable Futures building, to be located at the university’s St Lucia campus in Brisbane.
Lyons and M3 trumped five other shortlisted contenders, which included Conrad Gargett and OMA, Grimshaw Architects and Shane Thompson Architects, UNStudio, Wilson Architects and John Wardle Architects , and Woods Bagot.
The building will be home to the university’s School of Chemical Engineering.
The building’s design concept reflects the school’s ethos of being outwardly open and transparent, while inwardly intense and focussed.
The exterior of the building, designed with an energy-efficient glass facade, mediates between the university’s sandstone origins and a new technologically advanced future.
Metaphorically, the facade represents the metamorphosis from sand to glass, making it a building which acknowledges time and space as well as its role as the home of the chemical engineering faculty.
The building has also been designed to be efficient in its energy and water usage with more energy-intensive parts of the building fuelled by renewable energy generated from photovoltaic panels on the roof.
The interior of the building features open connecting stairs and shared collaborative spaces, which blur the boundaries between learning, research and industry.
The building is expected to be completed in 2020.