Jubilee Place

Jubilee Place is a 14 level office building located on the fringe of Brisbane’s CBD in an area not typically associated with commercial offices. The area has, however, in recent years been undergoing regeneration, particularly of the site’s adjoining Royal National Agricultural Showgrounds, stimulating mixed-use urban renewal. In order to attract interest of commercial tenants, the building and its architecture had to offer points of difference from other nearby office precincts. The first such point of difference is the diagrid structure, this being a solution to the structural challenge of a wide road tunnel that runs diagonally under the site. The structure transfers loads to straddle the tunnel, simultaneously forming an architectural expression imparting identity. A second point of difference was generated by an agreement with the adjoining landowner to work together on both sites. An exchange for a permission for the office building to cantilever partly above the adjoining pub enabled the pub to be restored and contributed to an extension that has now become one of Brisbane’s most vibrant nightlife hubs. This agreement, and concurrent design process, enabled us to interact the pub extension with the office building’s podium. The podium reaches into the extension (a beer garden, restaurant, and social gathering space) while allowing natural ventilation and daylight penetration between the podium and extension. For this reason, the office building’s ground place is public, incorporating a public square, with the office lobby at the level above. Above, the office levels provide virtually column-free space with the diagrid rising up and over the roof interconnect the geometry and form a canopy over a roof garden and rooftop restaurant. The garden is filled with species endemic to the landscape originally on the site and of relevance to First Nations peoples. The building is entirely green powered using solar and wind generation and achieving 6 Star Green Star energy efficiency, in part through the steel structure minimising embodied energy and enabling the straddling of the vehicular tunnel under the site. Jubilee Place is modest in scale but makes its mark as an architecture that derives its form from rational structural resolution, while weaving its fabric with adjoining land uses, including historic. The idea that the conventionally static office building can play a substantive role in public place-making through design partnership with adjoining landowners is manifest in this project.