Shell Beams
Outcome
The main crane
This 11,500 square metre building featured:
- atrium-assisted natural and smoke ventilation
- passive solar temperature control using thermal mass
- daylighting via a central atrium and adjoining double-height
spaces - a sine wave structural floor system integrated with an upper floor
air conditioning system - ground water cooling
- readily available local materials
- individual control of the environment without using external energy.
Mr Boardman explains that both of these projects required a floor system that satisfied the architectural constraints and could accommodate a column-free structure, air supply, cable reticulation, ceiling surface and thermal heat sink.
COP Outcome development and evaluation
The solution devised for the Auckland project was a variation on what was achieved at Canterbury, using off-the-shelf products as much as possible, and employing shell beams in a "completely new way." The Canterbury building cost significantly less than budget, and is less expensive to run than a typical university building of its size.
The building won the NZIA National Award for Architecture and the ACENZ Gold Award for Engineering Excellence. A Probe (Post Occupancy Review of Buildings and Engineering) questionnaire determined that the level of satisfaction among its occupants placed the building among the top five percent of buildings surveyed.
Mr Norgate said expectations were high that the success of the Canterbury project would be replicated in Auckland. He points out that the project brought together representatives of three different design disciplines – "a structural engineer who understands precast, an architect who appreciates the form of the structure and a services engineer who has enhanced the utility of the structure" – to find a novel and integrated design solution.
