As work commences on Sydney’s Atlassian Central – destined to become the tallest hybrid timber tower in the world, the interest and excitement around the $1.4 billion project continues to grow.
Last week, 500 real estate and construction executives packed a Property Council/Built breakfast briefing on the project – a big crowd for such an early start and, unusually for such an event, they peppered the panel with questions.
- Dexus’ Project Director Peter Morley will share the developer’s point of view on the Atlassian building at our signature event Tomorrowland 2022
The interest hit all the hot buttons: Atlassian’s distributed work policy, the ground breaking sustainable design and its location, alongside Central Station, as the flagship in the NSW government’s Tech Central innovation hub.
First Built’s project manager on the tower, Whitney Forse, summarised the numbers; 39 storeys over 75,000 square metres of gross floor area in a project that will deliver a 50 per cent reduction in both embodied carbon and operational energy.
She reminded the audience that this is a hybrid timber building with a steel frame exoskeleton, with a core and “mega floors” of concrete, and between the mega floors, a series of four-storey “habitats” created out of timber.
Then it was over to the panel – key members of a team that have worked the vision through the pandemic including 1800 formal Zoom meetings.
The questions started with one of the most commonly asked; why is Atlassian committed to a tower that will accommodate 5000 people – about half its current global work force – whilst promoting a work from anywhere policy?
Atlassian’s project director, Bronwyn Zorgdrager, said her firm’s Team Anywhere policy was agnostic about where employees worked, neither rejecting, nor mandating, remote, hybrid or office work.
“Complete flexibility for employees means choice, and if you take away the office you take away choice,” she said.
“By the end of 2026 we will have over 25,000 employees. I hope everyone doesn’t come to the office because we would have a problem.”
Built chief executive, Brett Mason said it would be a “club house” for Atlassian.
She noted that “everything was designed around the “scale of the human being” from the four floors in each habitat, to the maximisation of natural ventilation, and the biophilic use of timber.
The architects are SHoP from the US and the local BVN. SHoP associate principal, Andreia Teixeira, said a “great amount” of the design philosophy behind the project, “the vision and intent”, came from Atlassian.
The first question from the audience came from left field and related to the new YHA hostel on the lower floors of the tower. “Would you like to work over a youth hostel?”
Initially the green premium was an estimated $100 million but over the two and a half years of design it has reduced to $40 million.
“YHA have evolved”, said Brenton McEwan, the head of transactions and development – office at Dexus, which is the developer of the building and, with partners, eventual majority owner. “This YHA will be closer to a five star hotel, not bunks and shared bathrooms.”
The questions on sustainability started with the cost.
“Surprisingly less than we thought when we started,” said Mason. “The world of sustainability is a fast moving river”
Initially the green premium was an estimated $100 million but over the two and a half years of design it has reduced to $40 million.
In those years, a new electric arc furnace opened in Luxembourg introducing competition for green steel and the price of lower emission concrete has reduced as both Boral and Holcim have commenced production.
How do you calculate the saving in embodied carbon? Mason said a comparable building had been modelled at 904kg of CO2 per sq m of gross floor area compared to the estimated 374kg of CO2 per sq m of GFA in the Atlassian tower.
Does that count the carbon used in the transportation of the spruce timber from Austria? Yes, said Mason.
The timber attracted a lot of interest. Has it been bespoke fire tested? “We’ve done a shit load of fire testing,” Mason said pointing to tests, mock-ups and peer reviews. “The spruce timber is the only timber we can find with the correct fire rating.”
He did note the supply chain risks in construction and pointed to some parts of building being manufactured in Western Sydney. “We are looking to localise the supply chain wherever we can,” he said.
What does the habitat design add to construction time? “The cycle is maybe a couple of days slower per floor”, said Mason.
He added that the use of digital twin from day one, and with contractors integrated early, allowed “much more accurate pricing”: and the ability to “get in early and iron out problems.”
The reduction in operational energy is helped because part of the building, adjoining an openable façade, will not be airconditioned. One question asked whether that would work in a climate like Sydney and adjoining the busiest rail hub in the country?
“Yes,” said Teixeira. The facades are fully automated with the capacity to handle “exceptional circumstances. The space, without any background hum from airconditioning will be “quite fantastic”.
Mason added that the internal temperature would not be set at the standard 22 degrees, “designed for men in suits in the 1960s.” Rather it would be “more like real life.”
In the US many of the tech giants have opted for campus style accommodation in the suburbs but for Atlassian, Sydney’s tech corridor south of the CBD has long been the focus.
“Martin Place is not really conducive to our style of work,” said Zorgdrager.
Teixeira noted that the urban design in this project contributed to its success with a number of the large campus projects in the US “completely disconnected from the neighbourhood”.
But even good positions come with downsides. What will happen to the homeless who currently live in the area? one questioner asked.
McEwan acknowledged that the project would change the nature of the precinct and pointed out that at the moment the adjoining decommissioned Adina Hotel was being used to accommodate both the local homeless and Ukrainian refugees.
How did a US architect find Sydney’s planning regime? “I found it fantastic,” said Teixeira particularly in comparison to New York and particularly because of the up-front work by the local authorities in the competition process.
“It generates more certainty and fairness,” she said. “In comparison to any other competition process in the world it is far ahead.”
And what about the structure of deal, with Atlassian as minority owner and occupant on a 15 year lease and Dexus as developer and, with its partners, majority owner.
“We took it from an idea to a vision, to a plan,” said Zorgdrager. “Dexus were brought in as partner to take delivery risk.”
“The deal structure facilitates everyone to play to their strengths,” said McEwan. “None of use feels we are taking a disproportionate share of the risk.”
So, have compromises been made on the project?
“In general we did not take a big hit,” said Teixeira, “Because the vision was so clear from the clients side.”
Zorgdrager underlined the view. “We think the building is exactly what we dreamed up,” she said.
“Sustainability was at the top of the tree. It was number one and there was no way it was going to be compromised.”
Robert Harley, a former property editor of the Australian Financial Review moderated the panel.
