The architectural design of the JCU Ideas Lab building in Cairns successfully creates a space for innovation to develop and flourish.
Designed by Wilson Architects and Clarke and Prince Architects, the JCU Ideas Lab serves North Queensland as an innovative centre to translate research, ideas and ambition into products and processes with real commercial application.
The building achieved LEED Gold sustainability certification and received numerous awards, including the 2021 Australian Institute of Architects (AIA) Queensland State Awards for Sustainable Architecture and Educational Architecture.
A year after opening, 78 per cent of participants in a post-occupancy survey agreed or strongly agreed that the biophilic design elements (suspended plantings, natural light, external views and stairs) were important to their experience of the building.
Project director Hamilton Wilson said the JCU Ideas Lab set a new benchmark for contemporary design in the ‘innovation’ space.
Wilson said: “The $30 million project is the result of extensive research in this space including a nationwide benchmarking tour and analysis.
“Based on this research we developed a theoretical model for an innovation space, where the innovation ecosystem is made by the intersection and interconnection of three parts: the facilitators, innovators, and the environment.
“The aim was to create spaces for the events, tools and programs that foster innovative thinking and support a state of mind conducive to innovate, think freely and ideate.”
JCU innovation facilitator Keith Sue said it was a great testament to the architectural design that the building had been a beacon for innovative collaboration in the region.
He said: “The design – from the atrium to the room designs – reflects and reinforces the spirit of the building, which is to bring together people from a range of different backgrounds and sectors to collaborate and innovate.”
The building’s ground floor is a grand three-storey room with a north facing glazed wall of shaded tropical tendril-hanging plants inside and out blurring the landscape threshold.
A dynamic spiralling ‘DNA’ staircase connects the upper-level office spaces to verandas where staff can work collaboratively in a relaxed communal space that looks out to the atria and campus beyond.
Facilities in the three-storey building include makers space workshop with technology and tools for concept development and prototyping; innovation gallery, a showcase for research and innovation in the Atrium; open access work areas conducive to collaboration and mutual assistance; multipurpose rooms for symposiums, workshops, training, and meetings; and machinery, analytical equipment, tools, and spaces required for collaboration, invention and innovation.
Conceived as origami, the folded outer building form explores the idea that through people and process, the prosaic and simple can be readily transformed into something innovative and beautiful.
This playful building envelope gives the JCU Ideas Lab a presence in the landscape, while at the same time moderating heat and glare and maximising natural light to the workplaces within.