AT A GLANCE
Health and wellness prioritised: one of the first commercial buildings in Australia to offer a holistic work-life approach with a dedicated wellness floor.
Workplace of the future: a unique, community-focused workplace strategically designed to evolve with its users, creating a new front door to the city within this flourishing precinct.
Community connected: a city-shaping project where corporate ambition meets community spirit, creating a new 24/7 civic destination in the heart of Brisbane.
Rising above the Brisbane River on Meanjin, 205 North Quay sets a new benchmark for subtropical commercial architecture — an embodiment of Brisbane’s vision as a new world city. Designed to breathe, it embraces the region’s climate, enhances workplace wellbeing, and contributes to a vibrant public realm through thoughtful, generous design.
Designed by Hassell, REX, and Richards & Spence, 205 North Quay channels the essence of the traditional Queenslander home — think plenty of shading, plants, verandahs, terraces and outdoor spaces — into a workplace that values health and genuine connection.
One of the first towers in Brisbane to place health, wellbeing and community at its core, 205 North Quay is created for Brisbane’s subtropical climate, blending indoor and outdoor working and living. Guided by Hassell’s overarching vision for the project, including the conceptual idea of the “Shade House”, the design brings together a carefully curated team of collaborators that blend global and local knowledge. The result is a design that embraces a lifestyle unique to south-east Queensland, offering a shaded, open-air civic plaza at street level, and landscaped outdoor terraces that ascend the tower — creating unique ‘third spaces’ for connection, recreation, and retreat.
Applying research-led strategies to respond to the client’s brief, flexible, adaptable and functional spaces were delivered to meet the evolving workplace needs. The tower’s floors allow for future vertical connections, and by keeping columns in the core, the spaces remain flexible and open. Cleverly designed to combat the harsh south- east Queensland sun, a strategically positioned core and a finely articulated façade provides welcomed shade. High-performance glazing and integrated sun shading reduce glare and solar heat gain without compromising views, while advanced building services minimise energy use and water consumption throughout the building’s lifecycle, targeting a minimum 5.5-star NABERS Energy rating and a minimum 4-star NABERS Water rating.
A dedicated wellness floor that includes a 25-metre lap pool, as well as a gym and exercise spaces, along with premium end-of-trip facilities, support work-life balance. At the rooftop level, a flexible outdoor terrace offers opportunities for both focused work and gathering — something high on the wish lists of many employees, and prospective workplace tenants. The tower is also organised as a vertical campus, with interlinked three-floor communities connected by stairs that link to larger ‘neighbourhoods’. Fostering genuine connection throughout the building, the design creates a strong sense of belonging rarely seen in contemporary workplace towers.
At ground level, a publicly accessible plaza — designed for employees and the wider community to use — and a 210-seat auditorium create a new cultural and civic hub, energising the North Quay precinct and establishing a new front door to the city. The plaza is activated by a range of retail offerings, including a restaurant, encouraging people to linger and enjoy the space beyond the workday. It’s also designed to embrace a currently closed laneway that could one day become another lively connection to the precinct.
205 North Quay is a blueprint for future development not only for Brisbane, but for sub-tropical commercial Architecture. It’s a place where wellbeing, connection and culture are shaped by and converge with climate to create a healthier, more human-centred city.
