QUT Peter Coaldrake
Education Precinct

Kelvin Grove Campus, Brisbane

QUT KG Peter Coaldrake Education Precinct Building is a model for educational precincts internationally, setting a new benchmark for contemporary and sustainable design. The $94.4 million, six level Faculty is pivotal to QUT in terms of location as it brings together the education facility, the existing library and a major pedestrian spine that connects the busway to the campus heart.

The redemptive power of landscape can in some sense be expressed through the “wellness” experienced by users when surrounded by living landscape. The desire to improve the condition of users of the building was a significant driver in the incorporation of a landscape complete with substantial green elements within the building fabric.

A large landscaped atrium space was created connecting the new building to the existing library. It provided the opportunity to create a large vegetated public space within the building where users can find some repose and connect with nature inside the building envelope.

The atrium forest floor cascades across several floor levels with green columns reminiscent of epiphytic covered tree trunks of a rainforest reaching towards the ceiling.

The installation of substantial overhead skylights provided sufficient light levels to penetrate the 5-storey building and allow for sustainable plant growth. Full height glass curtain walls at either end of the atrium provided a visual extension of the landscape narrative through the building and to the rainforest landscape beyond. The location of air conditioning ducting and venting of warmer air above the planting provides for a favourable environment for the planting. 

Plantings extend throughout the upper storey open plan office work places to further develop any biophilic effects from the landscape.

The southern landscape transitions from the atrium rainforest floor into an open sclerophyll forest beyond planted with a community of selected endemic species and cultivars. Consultation with representatives of Oodgeroo and staff from the Oodgeroo centre housed in the new building facilitated the inclusion of a yarning circle and food gardens. The garden provides a space for quiet reflection and ceremonial use by first nations students and staff.  The selection of “bush tucker” and associated plant species throughout the planting palette provides an educational resource for all.