QPS Headquarters - Interview with architect Dr Noel Robinson OAM LFRAIA

Duration: 16:51 2710 transcript words EN summary

Video summary

The QPS Headquarters represents a significant architectural achievement designed by Dr. Noel Robinson and his team starting in 1988 as one of their early joint projects following Expo 88. The design process was grounded in "first principles," where every aspect from the site conditions to security requirements was meticulously analyzed before construction began. A primary focus during this period, which coincided with a time of high international interest and optimism for Brisbane, was creating an uplifting environment that met specific functional needs while ensuring robustness. This approach involved extensive stakeholder engagement to understand user requirements intuitively, resulting in a building that prioritizes security without sacrificing aesthetic appeal or functionality. The physical form of the headquarters is defined by its unique "groundscraper" layout rather than a traditional skyscraper model, featuring massive floor plates of approximately 5,000 square meters and an expansive central atrium. This internalized design strategy allows natural light to penetrate deep into the workspace while creating a grand communal space that fosters interaction among large departments. Although originally intended to feature a kinetic water wall at the base, this element was replaced by a white light wall, yet the intent remained to create a soothing and distinct atmosphere upon entry. The building's exterior is constructed from solid, textured concrete with minimal glazing to ensure thermal efficiency and security, while the roof features a floating blue cap that visually lifts the structure despite its heavy structural base. Beyond its physical characteristics, the QPS Headquarters embodies an interiorized philosophy often seen in European urban planning but rare in Queensland due to the local climate's emphasis on opening up spaces. The building functions as a secure facility housing forensic activities and offices within deep recesses designed with significant overhangs for sun shading, reducing energy consumption without relying heavily on artificial lighting or air conditioning systems. Its design reflects an interpretation of postmodernist principles through vertical layering—combining a heavy marble base, cream middle section, and floating roof—which pays homage to historical composition while addressing modern needs like fire safety via specialized dampers that allow the atrium to ventilate in emergencies. The project's success is attributed not only to its innovative design but also to the collaborative "Early Contractor Involvement" process used from day one, which streamlined development and reduced costs by fostering a cohesive team environment involving architects, contractors, and management. Dr. Robinson emphasizes that understanding the building's derivation through this rigorous first-principles approach prevented many common construction challenges and ensured the final structure operates exactly as intended for decades. Ultimately, the QPS Headquarters stands as a durable, efficient asset that tells its own story of function and security from the outside while revealing a beautiful, art-infused interior upon entry, proving to be a highly successful collaboration among partners who no longer exist in their original form today.

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Yes, we started working on the building in 1988 going into '89. Um the firm um before I joined the firm was BL Jessup Breton. BL Jessup Brel were the architects to do the master planning for Expo 88 and some other work. Um, and I did uh six projects at Expo 88 and we formed a uh a relationship after that project and this was one of our early joint projects and um so the project was designed through that period of of lots of interest in Brisbane and lots of international people being here and it was very uplifting uh to have um projects and clients like this that wanted to do design that was uh uplifting appropriate. So we we were in a great period of design excellence where people were euphoric about their um aspirations and so this was one of those periods. Obviously design is a a progressive pro process [music] and we had a group of very good people in our office that worked with u me and our partners on the project. So we um had a lot of interesting developments. Uh this is a project that's been designed from first principles which means that as you design a project you take in account of all the things around you um the site, the aspect, the purpose of the building, all those sorts of things. And so you go through a whole checklist of of issues uh SWAT analysis and make sure that the design starts to meet up with that. So you do a functional brief first and then make sure you understand what the the building is in in words and then you develop that into [music] uh a product like this. And out of those uh words, you talk to the stakeholders and understand [music] what their needs are and intuitively particularly in a building like this security uh issues to do with the building. And we made the outside of this building uh bombproof. So that's why the building does look fairly solid. Um so we as part of that we also wanted to make it look light. So it's got a cap on the roof, floating roof which is light blue and it's got a lovely curve to the top to make it look light. Whereas a lot of the building it looks very heavy because it has to be the external element of the building is all structure. Um so it's a big gritted structure around the whole thing. Uh the top could be light but the top of the building as you can see in this atrium uh this whole atrium ventilates out through the roof in the event of a fire. So, it's got fire dampers up there that will open and let the building uh breathe [music] uh during an event uh like that if if it ever happened. The building is designed with a with a a um skylight all the way around which lets dappled light come into the atrium so that it that reduces the amount of energy required for lighting. Uh the building externally of course is very solid and is is a very energy efficient because it doesn't have a lot of glass letting it uh light in or heat in and it's thermally a very good building. So the that the uh cost of running the building would be lower than it is if it had a lot of glass in the building. So, it's it's a building that um these days you'd probably put more additives into the concrete uh to make it a little less uh uh energy usage in that. Uh they they use other additives now in concrete to make that uh more efficient and recyclable. Uh this building was never designed to be recycled. Uh so if it if it goes, it's going to come down in a be demolished in a in a traditional manner. Uh these days we do things that but we actually look at components that we can take out of buildings and reuse them. It's called um basically a recyclable economy uh where we can do that. So it's not wouldn't say it's the top end of um environmental sustainability because back in ' 88 and ' 89 uh like that was our focus surprisingly enough but it wasn't a focus on this building. It was priority over everything else. The other thing that's important about this building, we it's it's internalized. It's called a grounds scraper uh instead of a skyscraper. So, we designed a ground scraper here, not a skyscraper. Uh incidentally, these floor plates, the floor area is around 5,000 m, plus or minus a bit. And because of the size of the building, this building equates to the same floor area as the Riverside Center. uh that was built uh earlier uh in I'm not sure of the year but that's um 50 54,000 square meters and this building is approximately the same area and it's obviously a lower flatter building but to do that um it lets light in all the way around the outside but the atrium provides a really beautiful internal space for everybody and as part of that we wanted to make a fantastic sculpture in here to hang up the Um, we also uh desired uh to put a a water wall water in the base because that was to be quite kinetic as you walked in, relax you and um have a background noise of water which is very soothing and ultimately that didn't get put in. We ended up with this white light wall. So uh the intention was to make a different feel at the lower level but it still works well. The atrium is uh very well used and it's uh it's a lovely open space where people can relate to where they're going inside and that's another important uh function of this uh and it would have been terrible to go right out to the edges and not have an interior space. Um and as I say they they do this sort of planning model in Europe. It's very very much used in Europe in the cities and not only for office developments but also for residential developments. You imagine the old courtyard houses in Copenhagen and all those sort of places in [music] France, Paris, they've got this sort of edge treatment that gives you a big open space. So that's that's what happened uh as we developed the planning [music] for this building. And at the time it was the very largest floor plate in the city. 5,000 m for a floor plate is very large. And they are very efficient buildings to [music] plan and to build um because the the planning of a on a floor works at least 10% better than a normal vertical building because you don't have to do vertical connections. Uh you basically got more levels on bigger plates. So they work better um [music] for office environments and for this building they work really well because you've got a lot of people interacting with each other on departments that are large departments and um at the back of this building there is a beautiful view of the river. Um and it's it's a lovely view in two directions down both reaches of the river. So um [music] it's a building that's got a number of facads. They're the key elements that started to drive this uh building. It was really interesting because we did a contract which is called an early contractor involvement, an ECI. And so having an ECI enabled us to work with the contractor and project management side to get uh a much more fluent process and a much easier non-liggic uh development process. And it was it's not a it's not a um a process. It's um it's it's an interactive process that works a lot better when you're building a building because there's uh the contractual uh changes you can make a lot easier and you do end up with a better building at a lesser price cuz everybody's working together from day one. So that was a really interesting process. The thing about this building is that it's contemporary interpretation of an Eldo Rossi approach. [music] Aldo Rossi was a an postmodern Italian architect who was leading the field in postmodernism. Whereas we didn't want to design a postmodernism building as such that the textures and [music] the integration vertically. that's turned out to be a postmodern building because it's layered vertically by the heavy base which is marble and containment and then the cream base and then the floating roof. So it's got these elements of base, middle and top. Um [music] and that's particularly a trade of the postmodern movement where you look back at history and look at how buildings are composed. And so this building is composed due due to that uh process of history. Um and whereas in Queensland we always design buildings that are designed for the climate because the climate we're in a subtropical environment and we need to make sure that we sunshade our buildings and if they're not air conditioned they've got to be cross ventilated. This building also uh complies with that idea and concept. It's got very deep recesses so it shades the the glass and it shades it all around. So um without having to put shades in the front of them and the windows are not really large. So the windows are are re reasonably well uh managed in terms of the heat loss and heat gain. Uh that's the [music] first thing and I think that so the exterior is this gritted thing with not lots of glass. Uh and that also supports the need for the building to be strong and to um still look uh regimented and contemporary as as the same time. So it's [music] it's a building that um has been a good building. A lot of people probably uh criminals think it looks very hard. Um but it is a bit hard because it has to be a building um tells what it is. This building tells what it is. It's not doesn't pretend to be something else. And I think that as you know, the building's got some basements in it for various uses and it's got the office and forensic activities that occur within the building space. They've all got to be secure and um yet function as a whole. And they they do that through a vertical circulation system of elevators at both ends of the atrium. So the building's got extremely good circulation and it's got very good fire protection uh as such. So [music] it's a it's a very unique building and you'll hardly see it again. The only other atrium of this size and in fact it's bigger is the old Hilton Hotel designed by Harry Sidler. Um uh we don't tend to do buildings in Brisbane that have got atriums because we don't need to. um that usually we're trying to get as much outside in that we can. Here we had to move everything out to get an interior. Um slightly reverse planning, but um it's produced a building that tells about what it is. It's a very functional building and it's a very durable building and um I think that it's been a very good uh asset uh for the government. There weren't that many challenges. I mean once we decided after first principles uh design process they all sorted themselves out and if you do that up front you don't run into too many problems as you go through the project. I think it's the experience of understanding what the building's all about and I think through this talk they'll get an idea of what it's what the derivation of the design is. um when you're outside, you just see this massive building and you're not aware of what the internal function of the thing is and how how beautiful the interior is and how nice it is to work in. And I think that um it doesn't express itself outside. It's an internal expression and it's a very efficient building for the for the client and the people that operate here. So, um I think the message is that it's working the way it was designed. Um which is nice. It hasn't changed uh which is lovely. I mean the sculpture is just beautiful to have in the space. He's a very famous sculpture and it's just lovely to have that without that sculpture [music] and art and architecture. It would be a lot more planer and that involves a lot more love and heart in that uh introduction of art. We had this space and we thought, how do we deal with this? And as you can see, I mean, this the structure of the interior is really nice. It's got all these vertical columns with hunches that hold the uh walkways. So, the sculptural uh connections are expressed and uh they're part of the subliminal uh operation of the space. And so they all add up to be could be a uh an element even the way that the b the balconies come back into this space and the handrails come in as a gap. All those things have been well thought through and uh a lot of the users wouldn't understand or they probably would understand if they had time to think about them. Um, but there are a lot of things in here that are very nice, nicely detailed and um, they add add just add to the romance and the beauty of the space. Well, I think all the things that I've been speaking about today are all surprising and interesting because most people don't understand what's in the building and have people come in and have a look at what the building's all about and have the explanation that I've just been able to give you, they will understand uh, the building a lot better. uh because it is one of these buildings that is a secret building and it's a secure building. So it's not one that you can look into and through. It's actually an interiorized um project. [clears throat] Um so there's there's that basic difference. And as I say, it's sort of non Queensland in some ways cuz Queensland buildings open out to the air. This one closes the space. That's why the space has got to be really so good. The whole idea of the planning is to provide this beautiful um space that everybody can enjoy every day. Well, I think for our firm, it was a very highly successful collaboration because I had three other partners at the time, uh, Graeme Bla, and, um, Bob Gardner, and we worked on the project all together, uh, all with our own expertise. And I think that we delivered a very successful building because of the coherency of the partnership that we had. And, um, that partnership doesn't exist anymore. And we were 120 people. We had an office in in Ant Street and some great um senior people in our office as well. And you need good talent uh to deliver a building like this. You don't deliver a building like this without a coherent uh design team that can deliver it and also with a great builder who we work with. So we were really fortunate on this project to have good people working together. I love coming to work every day, too, because it's the way that I design buildings cuz I get a new challenge every day because the way that I design from first principles. So, every time you come in, you're designing something new every day and it never becomes boring. It becomes a wonderful gift. I'm very excited to be here. It's a long time since I've been in the building and I think that yeah, it's lovely to come back and see it operating uh efficiently and functionally and everybody happy.