UQ Advanced Engineering Building

The AEB is a benchmark for innovation in learning, research, and collaboration spaces for engineering disciplines.

The facility has generated a world-class environment for the school, transforming the possibilities in research and education and augmenting its reputation on an international stage.

AEB establishes a new front door to the UQ St Lucia campus, Brisbane Australia. The UQ Great Court occupied a once neglected site that overlooks a large, introduced lake and an array of established bunya pines. The building addresses and reclaims the lakeside ecology while engaging with the existing neighbouring buildings.

AEB sets a new benchmark in climatic design by utilising passive and low energy active systems. The intent for the AEB was to prioritise the passive over the mechanical – to harness nature rather than work against it. Combined with the clean and healthy air of the landscaped campus setting, it was logical to open the building up and make it breathe – like the Queenslander House.

The AEB Auditorium is completely unique, with a sense of drama, scale, and the beautiful lake setting providing a living and active backdrop to each presentation through a fully glazed façade.

The architects promoted a ‘living building,’ where the in-between spaces are as important as the dedicated teaching and learning areas, with very communal hub and breakout space seen as a potential learning environment, to help build the world-class learning environment that it is today.

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