The redevelopment of an old administrative building at the Gyprock Coopers Plains factory site in Brisbane, has been built almost entirely with CSR’s own products and systems.

The newly refurbished office building, originally constructed nearly 40 years ago, will house the administrative teams for CSR Lightweight Systems (Gyprock Plasterboard, Cemintel Fibre Cement & Ceilector Ceiling Solutions) and Bricks & Roofing (PGH & Monier).

The building showcases almost the entire CSR range, putting aesthetics and functionality to the test.

The refurbishment and fitout of the building, totalling approximately 760sqm, follows in the steps of the Sydney CSR Headquarters, known as Triniti 3, which was built in 2011 using CSR products.

Queensland Regional General Manager, Finn Buckley, explained that the brief for QLD was challenging.

“It was an essential requirement that the refurbishment was to accommodate as many staff as comfortably would fit, housing two different divisions of CSR in the one space, and incorporating as many CSR products as possible, demonstrating how these products can be applied in a composite design.

“Our idea was to showcase CSR products in a commercial office environment, somewhat akin to the CSR House concept in Schofields Sydney, but in this instance in a living, breathing, working functional office building,” Mr Buckley said.

Building Designer and Director of Plan.Vue in Queensland, Ms Allison Dotta leapt at the challenge of combining the features of CSR products to create a building that would showcase the product qualities in the best light.

Despite working with CSR products for many years, Ms Dotta was able to learn more about individual products such as Cemintel Designer Series.

“The Cemintel Designer Series products were a stand out for us on this project as we had not seen these used in such large quantities and the way it was finished exceeded our expectations. We also used Cemintel BareStone on some of the feature walls.  While seemingly a plain product on its own, BareStone became a prominent feature on the interior and exterior walls when combined with colour and textured products.   

“In addition, the ability to use some of the external CSR products such as Designer Series and PGH Bricks on the internal walls opened up the possibility for some unique feature walls. We used PGH Megalong Valley Grey face bricks topped with Designer Series Slimline Slate, resulting in a striking feature wall for the boardroom,” Ms Dotta added.

Finn Buckley outlined the importance of getting the design right to make sure the vision was achieved.

“There was always going to be an element of difficulty when designing an office that will be used for different purposes and house numerous staff from a range of businesses. I feel the design incorporating open plan as well as closed space for private meetings, reflects the direction and culture of the CSR business.

“We made sure we thought of everything and covered every small detail. For example, in our casual breakout area for staff, adjoined to a state-of-the-art fully functional kitchen, it doubles as a lunchroom and casual meeting area with booth seating equipped with power points for laptops.

The area dedicated to office cubicles highlights the use of CSR USG Silenz perforated panels, painted black as a feature wall while offering an acoustic benefit. The boardroom boasts an impressive display of lighting in ‘wave formations’ that contrasts with the rich colours of the PGH Megalong valley Grey and the dark slate colour of Slimline Designer Series.

In addition to Cemintel Designer Series, BareStone and PGH Bricks installed into the new office, the list of CSR products is extensive including: Cemintel ExpressWall, Gyprock EC08 Impact plasterboard, Viridian Glazing systems, Ceilector feature ceiling systems, Bradford partition batts, building wrap and roofing insulation, Rondo Quiet Studs, Ecophon Ceiling panels and a new Aluminium partition system soon to be released.