ABC’s Victorian headquarters in Melbourne’s Southbank precinct combines a bold style, transparency as well as highly innovative use of technology to embody socially and environmentally responsible design.

Located in close proximity to several of Victoria’s prestigious institutions, the building functions as the epicentre of the broadcaster’s position within the city’s rich cultural fabric. Capral Aluminium supplied a striking curtain wall façade, along with several internal window and door systems to meet the environmental objectives of the building’s design.

Spanning an area of 32,000 square metres over four storeys, the Cox Architecture-designed ABC headquarters in Melbourne accommodates over 600 employees and houses a range of TV studios, offices, and radio recording and meeting facilities. Built by Probuild, this cavernous structure’s futuristic Capral window and door systems play key roles in facilitating its complex, deeply interconnected workflows.

The innovative office building meets the primary challenge of facilitating open communication between ABC’s major divisions. This mission demanded a window system that included significant natural light admission, while simultaneously remaining true to the broadcaster’s position as a national exemplar on environmental issues.

Embodying environmental sustainability, the Melbourne ABC building features the energy-efficient Capral AGS window and door suites as well as the weather-responsive façade, which manages the building’s solar heat gain through high-performance glazing systems and external shading. Forming the backbone of this dynamic system, the Capral AGS 419 Series Flushline is a contemporary minimalist framing system offering a modern external appearance – the Capral window suites also help realise impressive efficiency gains.

The central design theme of transparency is perfectly suited to the Capral curtain wall, window and door systems. The building, which designer Cox Architecture characterises as fostering a ‘dynamic, integrated and visually transparent environment, which promotes interaction across program teams’, also invites ‘greater public interest and participation’.

This sense of openness across and between disparate spaces represents the perfect platform for Capral’s hinged door suite used throughout the building’s complex structure, accurately reflecting this modern cultural facility’s demanding technical, acoustic and environmental specifications.

Capral systems used in the Melbourne ABC HQ project include 419 Flushline aluminium framing system; CW175 aluminium curtain wall; and 225 Series aluminium hinged, pivot and sliding doors.

Photographer: Peter Clarke