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At the moment the site looks like this, with a bout a six metre slope from the back to the road.
I'm gonna make it look more like this, except with a warehouse and and an office where the white squares are. I hope i've made the ramps long enough for the trucks to climb two metres. i think it's at 1:15. i've used the cut and fill method to level out the site and put retaining walls to hold the dirt in place. this design has the buildings raised on a bit of a platform, so Mies would be stoked. i figured i could even squeeze in a little garden out the back for the workers to have their morning tea. why the hell not huh?
Architecture Australia published an article on Southern Cross Station called "Bridging the Void" in their Jan/Feb 2007 issue. I was hunting for more information on the station because i pass through their every day, and as i mentioned a few blogs ago i remember it being widely criticised in the press last year. Oh, and the structure is pretty interesting too. And long span.
The article focusses on the urban planning strategies employed in the design of the station and the role of Public/Private Patnerships in large scale public buildings. It also notes the fluid nature of the roof form, and the irony in the technoligical complexity involved in creating such an organic looking building.
In terms of construction, the station had to remain functional during the course of the development, which put serious restrictions on the building and design process. As a result, the roof was designed as a series of prefabricated elements that had to be self supporting and able to span the tracks independently. The architects worked closely with several steel detailers around Melbourne to manage the risks invloved in such a complex project.
Raisbeck, P, "Bridging the Void", Architecture Australia, Architecture Media Pty Ltd, Melbourne, Jan/Feb 2007.
"I believe that in architecture you must deal with construction directly, you must, therefore, understand construction. When the structure is refined and when it becomes an expression of the essence of our time, it will then and only then become architecture." Mies van der Rohe.
So there you have it. Construction is alright after all.
The March/April edition of Architecture Australia contained an article on the relatively recent specialised field of fire safety engineering. The jist of the article was that some engineers are specialising in fire safety issues and have the expertise to come up with case specific solutions to problems that would otherwise have to comply with the more restrictive Deemed to Satisfy Provisions of the BCA.
Since 1996 the BCA has been performance based, so if an engineer can demonstrate that an alternative solution to a fire safety issue is viable then it will gain planning approval. This has a large impact on public, commercial and industrial architecture in regards to new possibilities in economy, time saving and architectural form. Examples of the rationalised approach to fire safety include structural steel members not neccessarily needing fire protection such as concrete to comply, and new possibilities for voids between floors where performance based smoke management systems are developed.
O'Meagher, T and Poon, L, "Fire Safety Engineering", Architecture Australia, Architecture Media Pty Ltd, March/April 2007, pp110-112.
In contrast to the DFO, turn around and you see a rather more innovative approach to long span construction, the Southern Cross Station by Grimshaw Architects. I don't know much about this building, so i might review an article on it to find out more. Stay tuned.
I'm gonna make it look more like this, except with a warehouse and and an office where the white squares are. I hope i've made the ramps long enough for the trucks to climb two metres. i think it's at 1:15. i've used the cut and fill method to level out the site and put retaining walls to hold the dirt in place. this design has the buildings raised on a bit of a platform, so Mies would be stoked. i figured i could even squeeze in a little garden out the back for the workers to have their morning tea. why the hell not huh?
