The Chancellery was completed in December 2006 as part of stage six of the campus development. The firm Architectus designed this building to embody the University of the Sunshine Coast’s (USC) commitment to an authentic subtropical public architecture.

Its location consolidates the central precinct of the campus master plan, which is based on the Jeffersonian model of the University of Virginia.

Placed directly opposite the Library, the Chancellery creates a hub and student focus while deferring to the Library as the University’s architectural centrepiece. It has a 250-seat auditorium, tutorial rooms, student commons space, academic offices, a café and USC senior executive offices, and Council meeting rooms. Wide stairs lead up to quite different, yet visually linked, zones: to one side the Chancellery, and to the other, a large open timber deck. The deck is an open-air learning space equipped with power and data for flexible, casual student learning and interaction. This large atrium space – a roofed piazza – operates like a town square and provides a social focus for the collegiate fraternity.

Ecologically sustainable design principles are central to the design. Offices and tutorial rooms are mixed-mode, that is, they operate without air-conditioning for most of the year, however each room has an individual airconditioning unit to maintain comfort during temperature extremes. Separate switching for each space eliminates unnecessary use of energy. All corridors are external and not air-conditioned, and the lecture theatre is cooled by a displacement air system.