Mirvac Group’s 8 Chifley was the big winner at the recent 2015 Property Council of Australia / Rider Levett Bucknall Innovation and Excellence Awards, taking home three awards including the program’s top prize: the Rider Levett Bucknall Australian Development of the Year.

Designed by Mirvac/ Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners and Lippmann Partnership, the 34-storey building completed in 2014 was generated by the desire to create a 21st century workplace with the highest user amenity standards and a world class sustainability target of 6 Star Green Star Design v2 certified rating.

The Sydney CBD building comprises two stacked modules of 12 and nine floors, with seven ‘vertical villages’ ranging between two and four storeys. Property Council of Australia’s Chief Executive, Ken Morrison noted that 8 Chifley’s floorplan and the designer’s use of space was ground-breaking.

“The villages present a bold new concept for commercial office design. Mirvac has capitalised on the constraints of a relatively small site to design a ground-breaking building that delivers an extremely flexible working environment able to respond quickly to changing demands in the marketplace,” he said.

“We believe that 8 Chifley sets the benchmark for future offices that drive cultural change, enhance collaboration and provide productive and healthy places for people.”

Photography by Brett Boardman

The project was awarded the Australian Development of the Year as well as the Best Office Development and the Best Sustainable Development - New Buildings prizes.

Eighteen awards in total were given out at the awards night including the Best Affordable Housing Development which was won by the Hames Sharley-designed Ergo – Stage 1 apartments in Adelaide and the Best Public Building which went to the Perth Arena,(pictured below) designed by the ARM and Cameron Chisholm Nicol collaboration.

Photography by Peter Bennetts.

A unique prefabrication construction method which sees air conditioning, ventilation and specialist exhaust ductwork, fire protection and other building services features prefabricated in three-storey sections was awarded the KONE Award for Innovation.

Lend Lease and specialist sub-contractor A.G. Coombs Group developed the prefabricated system for Sydney’s Barangaroo T2 Tower project, and Morrison noted that the system has the potential to enhance the quality, productivity and safety on building sites.

“The installation of services risers in high rise buildings typically presents the single biggest health and safety risk on any project. Lend Lease and A.G. Coombs have introduced a new way to install services risers that will reduce construction risk and improve site productivity,” he said.

“Workplace health and safety is the number one consideration in our industry and this innovation has profound implications for significantly enhancing this vital aspect of our work.”

The full list of awards and winners:

Images: supplied.

Nathan Johnson

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