How Brisbane’s Translational Research Institute Revolutionizes Medicine Through Architecture

In Brisbane, the largest research institute for medicine south of the equator, the Translational Research Institute (TRI), is transforming the world of medical research in part thanks to its new building by Wilson Architects and BVN Donovan Hill. Opened last year, the building has found success in the way it encourages chance encounters, offers a shaded breakout space for the neighboring hospital, and simply makes researchers feel like they “must be doing something important.” In this article originally published by Metropolis Magazine as “In Brisbane, An Innovative Laboratory Complex Is Home to Pioneering Medical Research,” Mikki Brammer explores how such a building can have such a powerful effect on the world of medicine.

It’s not often that the aspect of chance is considered a positive thing in the world of medicine, where the smallest error can determine life or death. But at the Translational Research Institute (TRI) in Brisbane, Australia, chance encounters are leading to lifesaving discoveries.

The largest medical-research institute in the Southern Hemisphere, the 344,000-square-foot TRI is perched at the rear of Brisbane’s Princess Alexandra Hospital (PAH) and comprises four floors for research support, administration, and teaching. TRI is particularly unique because it’s one of the few institutes in the world that has an attached biopharmaceutical manufacturing facility. This means that new treatments and vaccines can be discovered, produced, clinically tested, and manufactured in one place, in a process coined “bench-to-bedside care.” The treatments are then trialed with actual patients in the TRI Clinical Research Facility at PAH...