The Queensland government has partnered with Zernike Group and taken a whole new look at how to address some of the world’s biggest environmental challenges while at the same time changing how people perceive this Brisbane area.
This new approach, a new business and technology complex dubbed the Eco-sciences Precinct, is designed to be a hub of commercialisation and innovation, and construction is now underway in Brisbane.
Queensland Premier Anna Bligh explained in a media release, “The Queensland of the future faces great challenges and that’s why I want us to have the world’s best research facilities.”
The Eco-sciences Precinct, designed to be the “cerebral cortex” of the state’s scientific community, will be the home to Queensland’s best, most cutting-edge scientific minds, minds who will work together to address eco-science matters like climate change, clean water, and the problem of helping to foster sustainable growth within the state’s industries.
Queensland already has a reputation for innovation and mining, but it is the hope that this project will create for the state a world-class reputation for scientific innovation.
Brisbane Technology Park. Why Boggo Road?
Also, locating the Brisbane Technology Park project in the Boggo Road area in particular was a decision based on helping to change the public’s view of the area, which was previously tainted by its somewhat less-than-optimistic reputation for being a place where only prisons are built.
By incorporating research with retail and residential amenities, the hope is that the new precinct will inject new life into the Brisbane area in particular and Queensland in general.
Upon completion, slated for sometime in 2011, the Eco-sciences Precinct will be home to scientists from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), the Queensland Climate Change Centre of Excellence, and Queensland Government departments of Natural Resources and Water, Mines and Energy and Primary Industries, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency.
By creating a central hub for eco-science research and development, the Queensland government hopes that the Brisbane Technology Park will create a more intimate collaborative relationship between the federal and state government researchers, and to create new partnerships that can give rise to new and exciting solutions to environmental issues – all based out of a world-class facility.
One billion dollar “Smart State” investment
That facility is an integral part of the Queensland government’s Smart State Strategy. This initiative will see more than $1 billion in construction and when all is said and done the area will house the biggest and most advanced health and eco-science research facility in all of Australia.
It will integrate four new and existing education and science-themed precinct into one centralized biomedical and environmental research hub. Also included will be the Princess Alexandra Hospital Health Science and Education Precinct, the University of Queensland Precinct and the Mater Hospital Precinct.
In essence, this new development will help to create a strong between between industry, universities and the community at large that will not only create fertile ground for innovation, but that will show Australia and the world that Queensland is about more than just agricultural pursuits.
In keeping with the project’s aim to address environmental issues, the building will incorporate first-class “green” initiatives into its construction. The building will have high-efficiency, multiple-zone air conditioning, solar-powered hot water systems, rainwater harvesting facilities, heat-efficient glass windows, energy-saving lighting and thermal insulation, among other environmentally aware systems.
