Tag Archives: architect

Brisbane River Tower

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Only a few months to go before Crone Partners “180B” signature commercial development, reaches practical completion. 180 Brisbane is a 34 level commercial office tower, with 3 levels of retail and 5 levels of basement parking and estimated construction cost of $300m. Crone Partners designed the building in 2010 for Japanese client Daisho and construction giants Watpac. The project is due for completion November 2015. Crone architects have worked collaboratively with Watpac on a number of significant Commercial Office buildings in Australia, including the Telstra Tower at 275 George Street Brisbane and 333 George Street in Sydney. 333 George Street is also under construction and due for completion this year.

180B is ambitious, gutsy and a highly intelligent building. The tower will be Brisbane’s first 6 Star Green Star V3 certified office building and aiming for a 5.5 Star NABERS Energy Rating. This is the highest sustainability rating attainable through the Green Building Council of Australia’s rating system and described as “World’s Best Practice”.

The structural design is innovative using a side core to straddle the Brisbane railway lines that run directly under the site. The lift cores act as a beam to span over the railway tracks. Crone worked with Hyder structural engineers to develop the structural system and a series of large diagonal trusses to support the typical floor plates. This strategic thinking helped unlock the opportunities of the site. The resulting floor plates are regular in shape, open planned and saturated with light and spectacular views. It was through this innovative thinking, Crone were able to win the project through a Design Review Phase, against 6 major architectural firms in Australia. Other key issues that informed the design where overshadowing of King Georges Park, the requirement for a through Site Link and Wind Amelioration.

The Brisbane River super graphic, so dominant on the facade and no doubt controversial, becomes a theme throughout the development. It’s a signature to the building easily recognizable from a distance. A very bold idea, the Brisbane River is pix-elated on the North Eastern facade of the building through the use of a Frit on the glass. The Frit on the curtain wall panels is a rain drop pattern, following the theme of water and sustainability. The building itself has already been nicknamed the “Brisbane River Tower”

When complete this iconic building will truly transform the CBD and set a new standard for commercial buildings.

Below are aerial images of the building under construction;

180 b

180 b

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Photos courtesy of Ethan Rohloff Photography.

You can watch a marketing video and fly-through for 180B here;

180 Brisbane fly through from 180Brisbane on Vimeo.

108B is also on wikipedia!;

wikipedia – 180b

an architects weekend in london

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In 2014 I was in Europe for a Light & Build Expo in Frankfurt and decided since not often this far away from home, I should visit London. I really wanted to have a look at the Gherkin and Shard buildings in real life. To my surprise, I stumbled on a number of interesting buildings by internationally acclaimed architects, as I worked around a changing, grey and wet city. I started at the London Centre for the Built Environment, located at the Building Centre at 26 Store Street London. The Building Centre’s exhibition was called New London Architecture, explaining through models, imagery and precinct studies, how a new campaign of densification of the city was being promoted in the city. A major change historically for London, new guide lines would allow tall buildings in key regions of the city to be developed, for the benefit of the community.

“Since the Millennium, London has witnessed the construction of a series of tall buildings that have transformed the city’s skyline – from the Gherkin, which gained planning permission in 2000, through to the Shard, which opened in 2012, to the Leadenhall Building and 20 Fenchurch Street which are completing this year. And there are many more to come in the next few years, a veritable tsunami of towers. 236 buildings are in the pipeline, 113 of which already approved for planning.” Extract from London’s Growing Up – NLA Insight Study, NLA London’s Centre for the Built environment, June 2014.

You can read more about New London Architecture here;

New London Architecture

Below is a a video showing holiday snaps, combined with information on the web about the buildings visited. Thank you to Scott and Claire for your help!;

180B and the River Graphic

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The 180B commercial office tower in Brisbane designed by Crone architects in 2011, is well under way and due for completion later this year. The Brisbane River super graphic, so dominant on the facade and no doubt controversial, becomes a theme throughout the development. A very bold and gutsy idea, the Brisbane River is pix-elated on the North Eastern facade of the building through the use of a Frit pattern on the glass. The Frit on the curtain wall panels is a rain drop pattern, following the theme of water and sustainability.

180B has achieved a 6 Star Green Star environmental certification through the Green Building Council of Australia. This is the highest sustainability rating attainable through the rating system in Australia and described as “World’s Best Practice”. We are very much looking forward to seeing the finished product, having worked on the project for nearly 4 years.

You can watch the marketing video and fly-through for 180B here;

180B Fly Through

180B axo view

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the power of the oculus

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The Oculus is a highly sophisticated computer device that allows the user to experience a virtual world by wearing a head piece. When you put the goggles on, you are transformed into an amazing computer generated world, where your imagination has no limits. You can create buildings and spaces not constrained by structure or gravity. Together with Crone Architects, Sunny Chan from Ivolve Studios, has been developing the virtual software to run off the Oculus device and other VR (Virtual Reality) devices. For example the software allows you to, stand in a luscious green courtyard and look around at a virtual world of buildings, birds, trees, people and look up at a brilliantly sunny day, or stand in a living room looking at a custom designed television cabinet you always wanted and at the marble kitchen bench, fridge cabinetry and parquetry flooring you designed with your architect. The beauty of the software is it allows you to experience a building, or interior space, without having to build it.

What we didn’t realize, was when wearing the Oculus goggles, it also has the power to transform our staff into something quiet disturbing. I was lucky enough I couldn’t see this happening before my eye, due to wearing the goggles. Extreme caution should be used when using VR headsets.

office antics

And then the fun began;

robocop

twins

robocop 2

This is why I love our office….

the colours of 20 martin place

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There’s a lot going on in Martin Place at the moment. New buildings going up left, right and centre. I walked past one of our sites in the city at 20 Martin place on Wednesday night and was delighted to see the colours of the facade starting to glow.

20 Martin Place is a commercial office building designed by Crone Architects for Pembroke and built by BUILT. Its due for completion in the next few months.The facade is a shingle style, curtain wall system, with dichroic glass to the base. When light hits the facade it casts amazing reflections on the glass particularly in the afternoon.

20mp

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