Arup’s innovative approach to design and construction was recognised with two awards at the Australian Steel Institute’s National Steel Design Awards ceremony held in Perth this week.
Arup was presented with a National Structural Engineering Steel Award for the design of a new environmentally friendly office block and retail space located at 2 Market Street in Sydney’s CBD. The National Institute of Circus Arts (NICA), also engineered by Arup, won the National Architectural Steel Design Award.
The 2 Market Street project involved the redevelopment of an outdated three-storey building into a modern landmark commercial tower, with a full height glazed atrium, underground car parking, retail outlets and a gym. The prominent corner development, known as the Allianz Centre, was completed in July 2007. It sets new standards in CBD redevelopment, optimising existing assets while achieving leading environmental standards for new spaces.
“Joint property owners Macquarie Office Trust and Allianz Australia Insurance Limited wanted to create A-Grade office accommodation in a landmark building in the CBD,” said Nick Howard, engineering project manager for Arup. “We achieved this through a very strong design and construction team and ongoing client involvement to ensure compliance with the project brief and an elegant new building that complements the streetscape.”
The project presented a number of unique challenges, not least of which was the need to create a light structure that could be supported by the existing underground car park and substation beneath the building, which both needed to remain operational during construction. To achieve this, Arup’s design team came up with the idea of using a lighter, steel framed structure rather than the traditional concrete foundations usually used in a multi-storey building.
As well as offering a light structure, the use of steel beams allowed the new building to be erected in sections through the existing basement, with work taking place overnight to reduce the impact on car parking.
The client’s desire to connect the new building to an existing adjacent building created another set of challenges.
“We had to get floor-to-floor levels equal to those of the adjoining tower, so that the new floors aligned to allow pedestrian walkways to be built at each level to connect the new and existing floor plates,” said Mr Howard.
Arup’s solution was to design a steel framed atrium, with a glass ceiling and steel bridges reaching between the two buildings at each level. However, alignment of the floor levels resulted in a further challenge: it significantly reduced the ceiling cavity in the new building.
This shallow ceiling cavity was unsuitable to contain services such as communications, lighting, electrical cables and air-conditioning and drainage pipes. To overcome this, Arup incorporated the service reticulation within penetrations made through the webs of the composite steel floor beams.
Careful positioning of the penetrations were tested within Arup’s Building Information Model (BIM), which brought together the structural, façade and services’ designs created in three different software packages into one BIM environment. The penetrations were then formed during the fabrication of the beams, which were delivered to site with penetrations and stiffeners already in place.
Arup’s design also aimed to optimise the building’s ‘green’ credentials, targeting a 4.5 star Australian Building Greenhouse Rating. The use of chilled beams rather than air conditioning ducts, low water consumption fittings, rain water harvesting and the dimming of light fittings all significantly reduce the building’s energy consumption.
The National Institute of Circus Arts (NICA) building, which won the National Architectural Steel Design Award, is a state of the art training and performance facility in Melbourne, for which Arup provided full engineering design services.
The brief required a training/performance space up to 20m in height to accommodate up to 800 spectators during performance mode, a dance studio, a drama studio and foyer/entrance equipped with kiosk and toilet facilities.
Together with Cox Architects, Arup designed a lightweight, modular steel braced frame that was simple and efficient to detail and construct.
Use of 3D CAD modelling allowed Arup to provide true integration in the provision of a full suite of engineering services, drawing the collaborative efforts of Arup disciplines (structures, MEP, fire, acoustics, security and civil) together with architectural disciplines and client user groups.
The facility now represents an iconic point of reference for NICA, attracting the best students and teachers/instructors on an international scale.
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