Rio Tinto cuts desks at new hybrid Brisbane office

Commodities giant Rio Tinto expects to welcome back 1200 employees to its newly renovated office in the heart of Brisbane’s CBD, which has been designed for a hybrid workforce.

The Midtown Centre location, which officially opened on 24 May 2021, was built by joining and repurposing two old Queensland government buildings – Forestry House and Health House – into one office tower to create oversized floors.

The new 20,000 sq m office has around 800 desks, designated quiet spaces and 40 per cent more videoconferencing capability than Rio’s previous Brisbane home.

“It’s not just a new building, it’s part of our new journey to a new culture. We want to make an environment where people want to come to work, where people actually want to connect”.

“By bringing the two buildings into one, one of the great benefits is a much larger-than-usual floor space. So the ability to run into people and meet and mingle and build that sense of community is much stronger than it was before.”

The build recycled existing materials from the previous government buildings to save 11,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions – equivalent to running the building carbon-neutral for four years.

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https://www.afr.com/property/commercial/rio-tinto-cuts-desks-at-new-hybrid-brisbane-office-20210824-p58lgr