Renders courtesy Lyons and m3architecture.

Lyons and m3architecture have won a competition to design the Sustainable Futures Building at the University of Queensland, St Lucia campus.

The new building will house the School of Chemical Engineering and is designed at a leadership level for energy and water use. Its distinctive glass skin provides a highly energy-efficient façade, while energy intensive research areas are offset by expanded renewable energy photovoltaics on the roof.

The idea for the exterior of the building is the confluence between chemical engineering and the campus itself – a campus with stoic sandstone origins becoming increasingly glass with each new building addition. This evolution is due to advances in technology involving the work of chemical engineers, amongst others.

The design concept creates a physical environment and identity that reinforces the school’s distinctive strengths and culture – outwardly open and transparent, and inwardly intense and focused; based on open and collaborative relationships.

The project features open connecting stairs, shared collaborative spaces, and blurred and overlapping boundaries between learning, research and industry.