BHP Billiton
“Our new head office is a distinctive architectural statement, in the heart of the Australian business community. It is designed to help us collaborate and share ideas in an open and enjoyable way. This means we can work together to solve problems and generate the best ideas and best thinking.”
Former BHP CEO Andrew Mackenzie
Like the city that this building inhabits, the BHP Billiton Global Headquarters is designed to have multiple readings. Completed in 2004, the office building provides a landmark home for one of Australia’s major corporations and features ergonomic workstations, formal and informal meeting and collaboration spaces, a ground floor business centre, end of trip facilities and an employee café.
As one of the first of a group of major office buildings of the new millennium in central Melbourne, the project aspires to be both contemporary and complex. The design moves away from an office tower that gains an identity from dominating the skyline and instead responds to the individual context of the surrounding streets. The result is a building that contributes to the fabric of Melbourne’s CBD, utilising open and transparent features to make the inner workings of the building visible from the street.
Workplace
Adrian Stanic
Corbett Lyon
QV Pty Ltd
Grocon
171 Collins St, Melbourne VIC 3000
Located on the traditional lands of the Wurundjeri people
78,000 square metres
4.5 Star Green Star rating
Complete, 2004
Our design for the BHP Billiton Global Headquarters interrogates the corporate office towers of the 70s and 80s. With a cross section inspired by the inner workings of an ant farm, the design deliberately rejects the corporate mirror glass office tower that segregates itself from the city. The design literally turns the eighties tower upside down, making the podium and street the focal point instead of the skyline. The design reimagines the office tower with metaphors of layering, folding, continuity and juxtaposition to create an engaging relationship with the street. The building is not treated ‘in the round’ as many commercial office towers have been. It is intended to respond differently to the surrounding streets and city and to have multiple readings within its urban context. The main facade of the building on the south represents a contemporary urban ideal of transparency and openness. The east and west facades are rendered in dark reflective glass, primarily to reduce solar heat gain, but also to act as visual bookends to the building and frame the main south facade.
Our design for the BHP Billiton Global Headquarters is the result of a BHP Billiton agreement with Grocon to relocate BHP to the QV Village, creating a substantial corporate presence for the site. The project is fully integrated with the masterplan for the QV Village, incorporating mixed uses of retail, apartments and office space. With this central location in Melbourne’s CBD, the design supports BHP’s strategy of a more collaborative and interconnected workplace. Commenting on the significance of the building’s design, former BHP CEO Andrew Mackenzie said, “Our new head office is a distinctive architectural statement, in the heart of the Australian business community. It is designed to help us collaborate and share ideas in an open and enjoyable way. This means we can work together to solve problems and generate the best ideas and best thinking.”
The design accommodates large numbers of people in multidisciplinary teams. Exceptionally large, flexible floor plates, which are similar over all the levels of the building provide an open work environment. These floor plates, together with a side services core, provide optimum floor plan efficiency and maximum flexibility in fit out, from cellular clustered office plan arrangements to freeform workstation plans. The building is designed so that stacks of 3 floors are physically linked via an open stair to improve connectivity in the work environment.
Adrian Stanic, Director of Lyons
Adrian Stanic, Practice Executive, Directors
View Adrian's ProfileCorbett Lyon, Practice Executive, Directors
View Corbett's Profile
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