Architects: Jackson Clements Burrows
Area: 29,300 m² (315,382 ft²)
Year: 2023
Photography: John Gollings, Tom Blachford
Lead Architects: Graham Burrows
Project Management: Duo Projects
Landscape Architecture: Openwork
Urban Planning: Contour
Engineering & Consulting: Altitude, McKenzie Group, WRAP Engineering, Phillip Chun, du Chateau Chun
Structural Consultants: AECOM Australia
Lead Team: Christopher Botterill
Design Team: Tess Wrigley
Technical Team: Melita Kei
Fire Consultants: Scientific Fire Services
Quantity Surveying: Rider Levett Bucknall
City: Collingwood
Country: Australia
T3 Collingwood Office Building designed by Jackson Clements Burrows Architects in Collingwood, Australia, has revolutionized commercial architecture with its mass timber construction and focus on sustainability, urban connectivity, and local authenticity. Completed in 2023, this innovative project integrates Collingwood’s industrial heritage with modern design, offering flexible, high-performing office spaces that promote well-being and environmental responsibility.
The client presented an ambitious brief for a mass timber office building aligning with its T3 corporate strategy focused on transit, timber, and technology. This strategy responds to the demand for local authenticity, sustainability, and urban and social connectivity. The challenge was integrating this brief with Collingwood’s industrial context, characterized by warehouses, narrow streets, arts precincts, and a progressive demographic.
The design draws on this context to create a building with a 5-level brick and concrete podium topped by a 10-12 19-level lightweight mass timber structure. This structure reflects the building’s composition, with the brick podium fitting into the streetscape scale and the glazed curtain wall tower above aligning with emerging residential/commercial typologies. Aligning the northern façade of the podium with a heritage building to the east creates a wider ground plane, offering a generous arrival space with civic quality. The tower cantilevers over this setback, defining an entry pathway.
Using red brick in the podium, terracotta window shades, and curtain wall shading fins in the upper façade creates a confident color block response. The internal material palette continues this industrial, robust aesthetic with brick, galvanized metal, concrete, and timber. The design focuses on efficient, functional, and flexible floorplates with excellent light access and amenities.
The building includes ground floor food and beverage offerings, EOT facilities, and terraces created by stepping back the form at higher levels. The warm timber aesthetic inside nurtures occupant well-being, a rare feature in high-rise offices. The efficient floorplates, leveraging the mass timber grid, provide optimal flexibility for future tenancy fit-outs. Maximizing yield was essential to support the higher construction costs of a mass timber system.
Delivering a mass timber building at an unprecedented height in Victoria/Australia required extensive consultant coordination and fire engineering modeling. Multiple structural and hybrid systems were tested to validate the design, ensuring cost-effectiveness at every step. Sustainability was a central focus.
The design aims for a thermally efficient, high-performing, low-carbon, and low-cost building. T3 achieved a 6-star Green Star (Design) rating, with ethically sourced local timber reducing embodied carbon by 34% compared to concrete structures. This project represents a shift towards carbon-conscious commercial spaces, reflecting the objectives of both the developer and design team.
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Project Location
Address: 52 Wellington Street, Collingwood, Victoria 3066, Australia
Location is for general reference and may represent a city or country, not necessarily a precise address.
