Ford Research and Development Building

The new Research and Development Centre for Ford Asia Pacific & Africa replaced an ageing facility that for 45 years had been the design, development and testing home for Ford of Australia. It has bought all the 300 plus local and international engineers together into a modern, spacious two storey office complex that forms the face of the building when viewed from the street. Connected to the front office complex are four individual factory areas, ensuring good communication between the designers and the 150 plus people involved in the workshop areas. The Test Area houses numerous machines and facilities designed to test vehicle components and assemblies. These include environmental chambers to test vehicles at extremes of temperature and humidity and hydraulic simulators. Various noise enclosures enable Ford to carry out these tests in a quiet environment, acknowledging the need for this new facility to meet the requirements of OH&S needs of Ford's employees.The central Garage area houses numerous vehicle hoists and general workshop areas. Production and Prototype Shop is the area where the shape of new products dreamed up by the Studio designers is transformed into working test vehicles. The Engine Test Cells are heavily constructed concrete rooms which were designed for testing both locally produced and imported engines and house state of the art testing equipment and computers.