Queensland architects make a splash in China

An artist's impression of the National Maritime Museum of China. Photo: Supplied

China may have invented the rudder, but it's a Queensland company which is steering the spiritual home of the nation's maritime history.

Cox Rayner Architects' Queensland practice beat a field of 80 designers to win an international competition to design the National Maritime Museum of China in Tianjin, east of Beijing.

Of the 80 applications, eight were handpicked to compete in the competition, before three Cox Rayner, the South China Institute of Technology and Miralles-Tagliabue of Spain were chosen as finalists.

The application process went for six months before Cox Rayner's design of interconnecting pods extending into the bay was chosen.

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It's the first significant Chinese national public building competition a Queensland architecture practice has won and only the second time an Australian company has won.

The 80,000 square metre project will cost $290 million, which Premier Campbell Newman said would equate to close to $900 million in Australian terms, given the relativity in production costs.

It is really putting Queensland on the map and it is showing that we don't just export things like coal, minerals and agricultural products from this state, we are also increasingly exporting services that have underpinned the development of Queensland over the last few years, Mr Newman said.

Closer to home, Cox Rayner created the One One One Eagle Street tower, which Mr Newman described as a stunning piece of architecture, and the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre.

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Queensland architects make a splash in China