Quay Quarter Tower

Quay Quarter Tower

QUAY QUARTER TOWER

3xn

ARCHITECTS
3xn

GENERAL CONTRACTOR
Multiplex

3 XN PARTNER, FOUNDER
Kim Herforth Nielsen

PUBLIC ARTWORK
Studio Olafur Eliasson, Studio Other Spaces

LANDSCAPE
Aspect Studios

3 XN PARTNER, KEY TEAM, DESIGN & EXECUTION PHASES
Fred Holt

ENGINEERING
Bg&e + Adg

3 XN PARTNER, KEY TEAM, DESIGN PHASE
Jeanette Hansen, Audun Opdal

DESIGN TEAM
Alvin Kung, Andrew Le, Carlos Ramos Seidenfaden, Henrik Rømer Kania, Jes Tønsgaard, Kasia Stachura, Mads Herskind Møller, Maria Tkacova, Martin Rejnholt Frederiksen, Morten Andersen, Olaf Kunert, Rasmus Møller, Sam Sweeney

KEY TEAM, DESIGN & EXECUTION PHASES
Alyssa Murasaki Saltzgaber

KEY TEAM, EXECUTION PHASE
Torsten Wang, Jeppe Kongstad Hjort

KEY TEAM, DESIGN PHASE
Louise Villumsen, Morten Norman Lund, Oskar Nordstrøm, Sebastian Le Dantec Reinhardt, Torsten Wang, Gry Kjaer

PROGRAM / USE / BUILDING FUNCTION
Office And Retail

FAÇADE CONSULTANT
Arup

COLLABORATORS
Bvn

AREA
102000 M²

YEAR
2022

LOCATION
Sydney, Australia

CATEGORY
Office Buildings, Retail

Quay Quarter Tower

Text description provided by architect.

The recently completed 89,000 sqm Quay Quarter Tower (QQT) is a once-in-a-generation project – one that, when it was won in 2014, seemed almost far-fetched.

Located on the edge of Sydney’s bustling Circular Quay, the tower “upcycles” the existing AMP Centre tower. Built only in 1976, the original AMP Centre was reaching the end of its usable lifespan.

Still, rather than simply tear it down and start over, the project team set out to reach an ambitious goal: to reuse as much of the existing building and set a lofty new standard for what is possible for adaptive reuse in architecture.

Quay Quarter Tower
Quay Quarter Tower
Quay Quarter Tower

Today, that goal has been achieved. QQT retains over 65% of the original structure (beams, columns, and slabs) and 95% of the original core, resulting in an embodied carbon saving of 7.3 million kilograms (the equivalent of 35,000 flights between Sydney and Melbourne).

The 206-metre, 49-storey tower is composed of five stacked and shifted volumes; the lower floors face the bustling Younge Street and Harbour Bridge, and skew eastwards as they climb to frame panoramic views onto the Royal Botanic Gardens and the Sydney Opera House.

The twisting composition not only animates the skyline but allows the tower to fit within the site’s shade envelope requirements despite grafting on more than 45,000 sqm of new floor space.

Quay Quarter Tower
Quay Quarter Tower

QQT was developed around a “vertical village” concept, designed from both the inside out and the outside in and with the user experience top of mind.

And with 10,000 people working in and passing through the structure each day, it’s no small scale to account for. Each of the tower’s five volumes is a hub unto itself, floors threaded together by a spiral stair and arranged around stacked atria that bring daylight deep into the 2,000 sqm floor plates.

Quay Quarter Tower
Quay Quarter Tower

For tenants who need to further subdivide the floors, a dismantlable and portable (small enough to fit into the building’s lifts) floorplate can be installed within the atrium to accommodate changing spatial needs.

Linked to the atrium at the base of each block are exterior terraces, allowing workers access to the outdoors without requiring them to return to the ground level and exit the building.

Quay Quarter Tower
Quay Quarter Tower

In many highrises, the typical tower-on-podium design approach all but eliminates street-level presence and approachability – deadening towers and city centers alike.

QQT works against this paradigm, embedding both a lobby and a market hall in its sloping site to create an open, multilevel public podium that welcomes all.

Quay Quarter Tower
Quay Quarter Tower

3XN’s design for QQT was chosen as the winner of a two-stage, international, design excellence competition; following the competition win, 3XN and client AMP Capital selected BVN as the Executive Architect for the project approval process and the Design Development/Detailed Design phase.

During Construction, BVN was novated to the contractor, Multiplex, to complete documentation while 3XN remained client-side to oversee the design and review construction development.

Quay Quarter Tower
Quay Quarter Tower

Additional project partners include ASPECT Studios (Landscape Architects), Tom Dixon DRS (Lobby and Market Hall interiors), and Olafur Eliasson, whose studio contributed to the public artwork at the tower’s base.


Quay Quarter Tower
Quay Quarter Tower
Quay Quarter Tower
Quay Quarter Tower
Quay Quarter Tower


Quay Quarter Tower
Tower - Stacked atrium
Quay Quarter Tower
Tower - Stacked atrium
Quay Quarter Tower
Tower - Plant room space
Quay Quarter Tower
Tower - Floors


Quay Quarter Tower
Tower - Site boundary
Quay Quarter Tower
Tower - dcp envelope
Quay Quarter Tower
Tower - Shared amenities trading floors
Quay Quarter Tower
Tower - Horizontal division
Quay Quarter Tower
Tower - Optimized volume
Quay Quarter Tower
Tower - Manipulate massing

Quay Quarter Tower
Tower - Floor levels
Quay Quarter Tower
Tower - Facade
Quay Quarter Tower
Tower - Stacked atrium


Quay Quarter Tower
Plan - Basement 01 1.600
Quay Quarter Tower
Plan - Ground floor 1.600


Quay Quarter Tower
Longitudinal Section 1.400
Quay Quarter Tower
Cross Section 1.400