Nioa Headquarters and Office Expansion

The NIOA Brisbane Office Expansion project was a response to demand for increased permanent office space for NIOA, a national defence supplier, and their rapidly growing workforce. The project includes 4 levels of new office space, a state-of-the-art boardroom space and new glazed staff courtyard to tie the entire precinct together.

To enable a timely delivery for new office space, the entire structure is CLT which will be expressed internally and allows for a much shorter build time when compared to conventional systems. Timber buildings also generally have a lower embodied energy, being a sustainable and efficient alternative to traditional construction systems like steel and concrete.

The versatility and lightweight nature of the timber means it can be designed to be easy to disassemble, recover, reuse and/or recycle. Prefabricated timber can also reduce construction periods, be a safer and quieter material to work with. XLAM and Hyne, the Australian based CLT and Glulaminated timber suppliers estimated that the structural timber used for the new office would regenerate in approximately 45 minutes from the existing Australian commercial plantation forests.

KIRK Principal, Dr Andrew Magub* was the Project Director, Project Architect and Project Manager for the new NIOA National Headquarters at Brisbane Airport. This unique facility is arguably one of the most advanced private defence facilities in Australia, directly supporting NIOA as the largest private supplier to the Australian Defence Forces

The NIOA state-of-the-art, high-security facility includes 5,000m² of warehouse, 2,600m² of office, showroom & conference centre, an indoor 100m test fire range, weapons maintenance facility, secure armouries and explosives stores.

*(as a Director of Artas Architects)

The design and project management of the NIOA national headquarters included all briefing, negotiation and approvals from relevant authorities such as the Airport Building Controller, Brisbane Airport Corporation, Department of Defence, Queensland Police Service and Queensland State Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy.

The NIOA National Headquarters is a high security facility, designed from inception to include significant physical security measures in the design and construction as well as electronic measures. The entire facility has been designed and constructed with ramraid and intruder denial features.

One of the key features of the NIOA National Headquarters is the indoor 100m test fire range, rated to cover weapons from small calibre up to 40mm cannon. This range is the only 100m indoor range of its kind in Australia and has been designed and constructed with significant mechanical, acoustic, ballistic, safety & security requirements. This provides perfectly controlled environmental range conditions.

The Nioa National Headquarters includes the storage of dangerous goods (1.4S, 1.4C and 1.3C) in appropriate certified facilities.