UQ Ipswich Library PTFE Roof

The UQ Ipswich Library PTFE Roof, installed in 2002, is an early example of a timber and fabric roof construction. The PTFE roof, designed as a flat cone roof structure, employs sailtrack around perimeter to secure the PTFE membrane to the building. A lattice of structural timber beams  support the PTFE, with uprights extending above the support columns providing shape to the ceiling.

Now part of the USQ (University of South Queensland), the USQ Ipswich Campus Library features a “large internal garden [that] reinforces the buildings focus and circulation, and creates an air quality that is unequalled for a building with such intensive use of electronic equipment.” Wilson Architects.

The indoor plants are able to thrive inside the library, thanks to the natural light transmission of the PTFE membrane. The natural sound-absorbing qualities of the PTFE, coupled with the conical shapes in the ceiling, help to create a quiet, calm, open-air oasis for students and faculty which researching in the library.