Palm Island Government Offices

Office buildings, $9m, Palm Island (2008)

A pair of carefully detailed, multi-tenant government buildings, built to a high standard in a difficult location, under a design construct contract.

Brief & Context

The State Government committed to building new Government offices over two prominent sites on Palm Island.

One building included a Magistrates Court Facility, with holding cells and offices for the Department of Justice and Attorney, and the Department of Corrective Services, Centrelink offices and the Alcohol, Tobacco and other Drugs Service for Queensland Health.

The other building fronting the public mall included retail tenancies, the post office and offices for the Departments of Child Safety, Communities, Employment and Industrial Relations.

Design Approach

Studio Mango worked for Laurie Lindner Constructions who won the design and construct contract based on concept design drawings by Project Services.

We then worked closely with the builder and Project Services to rationalise and improve the design, This included more on-site fabrication, better weatherproofing and more robust construction.

The buildings had numerous government agency stakeholders whose detailed requirements had to be integrated into the final design.

This design development had to be undertaken in a tight time frame, and be closely followed by detailed construction documents. The use of Revit Architecture software greatly assisted in this process, as it allowed us to seamlessly progress through design development to documentation.

Materials

The buildings are predominately load bearing, timber framed construction. A common construction system on the island, easily transported from the mainland, rust proof and utilising local skills. Claddings are fibre cement over a plywood backing for extreme impact strength and for resistance to rust and fire.

Design Team & Builder

Builder: Laurie Lindner Constructions

Mango Team: James Maude, Nic Granleese, Barry Bradbrook, Liam Froggatt, Melanie Jackson

Project Services: Richard Schoch

Structural Engineer: Bruce and Associates

Electrical and Mechanical Engineer: Lincolne Scott

Hydraulic Engineer: H2O