180B and the River Graphic

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

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

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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The Three-Dimensional City: How Drones Will Impact the Future Urban Landscape | ArchDaily

“Many have come to associate drones with the looming unmanned aircraft deployed in the defense industry, but as technology continues to improve drones have gotten smaller and progressively less expensive. Consumers can now purchase their very own drone for as little as $600 or less and the technology is already proving to be useful for a wide variety of purposes, including possible uses for architects in everything from site analysis to construction”

The Three-Dimensional City: How Drones Will Impact the Future Urban Landscape | ArchDaily.

drones in cities

180B tops out soon

Only a few levels to go before Crone Partners “180B” signature commercial development, located in Ann Street Brisbane tops out. Designed for Daisho and built by Watpac, the project is due for completion in November this year and features a huge super graphic of the Brisbane river on its Eastern facade. The tower is 34 levels tall with over 60,000m2 of Gross Floor Area.

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