Over the skyline of Sydney, Atlassian Central now rises more than 180 meters (over 590 feet), its hybrid timber structure reaching full height with the completion of the final structural level. The 39-story tower designed by SHoP Architects and BVN is organized around seven timber habitats, each spanning four floors and forming large openings through the workplace above the city. Timber remains visible within these clustered spaces, giving the building an identity shaped by its construction system as much as its height.

Atlassian Central becomes the world’s tallest hybrid timber tower at its topping-out milestone, standing around 100 metres higher than Milwaukee’s 25-story Ascent tower. Co-owned by Dexus and Atlassian, the development will become the software company’s Australian headquarters, with completion scheduled for late 2026. Its record height draws attention, though the larger story lies in bringing mass timber into a commercial tower at a scale usually made possible by heavier structural systems.

images © Toby Peet

Designed by SHoP and BVN, the tower pairs mass timber with a steel-and-concrete system, allowing each material to work where it performs best. Timber reduces the building’s overall weight and lowers the carbon associated with its frame, while the surrounding structure supplies the strength required for a high-rise of this size. The lighter system also supports prefabrication and dry construction, with major components assembled through a tightly sequenced vertical build.

Inside, the seven habitats divide the tower into four-storey workplace clusters with access to daylight and fresh air. Conditioned work spaces open onto naturally ventilated areas to create shifts in temperature and enclosure across each habitat. Timber floor plates sit between steel-and-concrete levels, while planted spaces and open edges connect the offices with the surrounding city. The building contains 75,000 square meters of floor area and uses around 10,000 cubic meters of specialized timber sourced from Austria.

Atlassian Central reaches more than 180 meters (over 590 feet) over Sydney

Australian contractor Built leads construction in a joint venture with Obayashi Corporation, using digital engineering to coordinate timber components with the rest of the frame. The team virtually assembled and sequenced the structure before work began on site, an important step for a system involving 8,000 tonnes of structural steel and 30,000 cubic meters of green concrete. With the structural frame complete, facade installation and central building services continue through the final phase.

The project targets a 50 percent reduction in upfront embodied carbon compared with a conventional premium office tower, along with a 50 percent improvement in operational energy efficiency against a conventional 5 Star NABERS base building. It is also designed to operate entirely on renewable energy and without fossil fuels from its first day of use. For mass timber, Atlassian Central moves the discussion beyond mid-rise construction and into the commercial skyline, testing whether a hybrid method developed at this scale can become a repeatable system for dense cities.

the 39-story tower now stands at its full structural height

seven timber habitats divide the tower into four-story workplace clusters

mass timber reduces the weight of the hybrid structural frame