Timber Office Revealed for Brisbane’s North Shore

While the race is still on to push the vertical limits of eco-friendly wooden tower construction, plans have been quietly filed for a boutique timber building on Brisbane’s north shore. The five-storey office block is earmarked for a narrow 478sq m site along the fashionable shopping and dining strip of Racecourse Road at Hamilton. It has been lodged with the Brisbane City Council by Godfrey Esmonde’s Holm Developments. Property records show the site at 18 Racecourse Road—neighbouring the Hamilton Hotel—changed hands for $2.3 million in December, 2023. It was sold with an existing approval in place for three apartments across a four-storey building with a private rooftop recreation space. Under the new proposal designed by Baber Studio, the proposed 948sq m office building would rise to 24m. “The architectural design is defined by an expressive timber structure behind a shaded transparent facade that includes a combination of glazing, metal cladding and a lightweight perforate metal screen,” a planning report said. Four levels of office space would sit above a ground-floor commercial foyer and adjacent subtropical landscaped “outdoor room” with a slender frontage to Racecourse Road. Glazed western and eastern facades would provide views to the city and down leafy Racecourse Road to the river, respectively. A submitted design statement said the proposed timber office building “offers a unique identity that is integral to its materiality and expressed structure”. The use of timber structures (cross-laminated and glued-laminated timber) behind shaded transparent walls was “a visual demonstration of the project’s pursuit of sustainable development, with a significantly reduced carbon footprint”. “Using a palette of subtly varying, light coloured metal profiles and diffuse translucent screens, the building façade seeks to enhance the natural qualities of the timber interior it is adjacent to, and the green foliage of the exterior treed context,” it said. According to the report, the design includes a range of energy consumption and greenhouse gas reduction strategies—notably, the use of engineered timber and light coloured cladding to reduce heat loads on the external building fabric as well as solar panels on its saw-tooth profiled roof. “The majority of the building’s structure is carbon negative, with significant carbon sequestration values through the use of renewable, re-growable Australian timber,” it said. ▲ Renders of the proposed timber office development at Racecourse Road, Hamilton on Brisbane’s north shore. In the documents, it is described as a “modestly scaled” office development. By comparison, a 51-storey hybrid timber building was given the green light in September last year in Perth. To be known as C6, it is to be developed by Melbourne-based Grange Development and touted to become the world’s tallest timber building. The $350-million development will comprise 237 apartments. Back in November 2018, Lendlease officially flung open the doors to what was then Australia’s tallest and largest engineered timber building in Brisbane. The 10-storey office development at 25 King Street, Bowen Hills, heralded a move away from steel and concrete towards the more sustainable resource of timber. It comprises 14,965sq m of net lettable area. According to the documents, the scale of Holm Developments’ Hamilton proposal responds to the local context, together with the provisions of the neighbourhood plan supporting a diversification of uses within the Racecourse Road precinct. “The proposed five-storey building height supports the provision of a high-quality commercial office outcome that will positively contribute to the economic and social activity within the precinct,” the application said. “The office use will add daytime activity to support and strengthen the viability of the retail activity along Racecourse Road.” As well, it said the proposed building would “create a visual marker at the southern entrance to Racecourse Road from Kingsford Smith Drive”. Carparking spaces for 10 vehicles is to be provided to the rear of the site at ground level along with four bicycle spaces.

Timber Office Revealed for Brisbane’s North Shore

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