LOCATION:
Murdoch Drive, Murdoch
COLLABORATORS:
Armstrong Collective (Armstrong Parkin Architects)
EMCO Builders
Delta Corp
YEAR OF COMPLETION:
2017
PROJECT VALUE:
$45 Million
AWARDS:
2018 Master Builders-Bankwest Excellence in Construction Award
Best Education Building $20 – $50 million category
2019 Concrete Institute of Australia (WA)
Best Infrastructure Project
Airey Taylor Consulting were engaged as the Civil and Structural engineers for this State Government development that forms a significant project linking education and industry in Perth. A three-level building with mixed educational, administrative and commercial facilities, it provides full support services for students and staff while enabling real-world style work training.
The design of the building stretches over three levels and includes active TAFE training facilities for Health, Sport and Lifestyle, Business and Information Technology, Community Services and other students. Learning areas provided include features classrooms and computer labs, a library and study rooms, and industry specific spaces including full Hair + Beauty salon, Massage clinic, and gymnasium. The building also houses significant client service, international student and other office administration functions for Department of Education workers. Commercial spaces also form part of the building, with externally tenanted cafes and a bookshop.
The design included all structural elements, foundations, columns and load bearing reinforced block walls, post-tensioned concrete slabs, structural steel works and precast panels including the cantilevered panel to the western face. Apart from the lattice façade there were precast panels at each end of the building to provide support for the suspended slabs and to provide lateral stiffness.
The main architectural feature of the building is unquestionably the pre-cast concrete lattice façade that has received national press coverage in the Built Office Magazine, the publication of the National Precast Concrete Association of Australia. This screen runs the length of the 120-metre-long verandah along the street frontage – offering shade, privacy and comfort to occupants along the length of the glass curtain wall, without hindering their campus view. Airey Taylor Consulting worked in close conjunction with Delta Corp to create this beautiful feature. The team overcame significant design challenges for this state-of-the-art feature.
The lattice concrete panels were constructed of 40MPa stainless steel fibre reinforced concrete. It consisted of a standard panel with ribs removed occasional to provide the elegant design. The panels were arranged so that they could be rotated 90 or 180 degrees and the ribs matched the adjacent panels. The panels were analysed initially using SpaceGass and the final design performed on SAP2000.
As the lattice panel were see-through it was intended to minimise the background steelwork so the panels were supported near the 4 corners. Vertical outriggers attached to the building were aligned with the panel joints and 4 arms extended out to pick up the corners of the adjacent 4 panels.
Although the panels were designed for wind and earthquake loading it was the self-weight of the panel that governed the design, in particular where the panel cast-in support socket was located on an outer rib and was subject to bending.
Airey Taylor acknowledge the superb work of Armstrong Collective for this beautiful design and the work of EMCO Builders and all participating collaborators for this prize-winning result. Particular thanks to Gino Perella (Delta Corp) whose work on the pre-manufactured panel was instrumental in the creation of the award-winning project.
