Concrete

Masonry Innovation

WA L L I N G

Concrete Masonry WA L L I N G
The use of concrete masonry offers a number of pragmatic benets, notably noise attenuation, thermal mass and low maintenance. In this publication however, we focus on design, and look at the integration of concrete masonry in the schemes of seven architects. In the use of the material, the projects variously explore colour, mass, texture, form, context and metaphor. Collectively they demonstrate the range and the potential of today's concrete masonry.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP

Maitland Visitors Centre, NSW Wyong Civic Centre, NSW Mercedes Benz National Headquarters, VIC Primo Smallgoods Head Ofce, NSW

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Evan Burge Library and Education Centre

The Evan Burge Library and Education Centre divides its primary functions on two levels. The ground oor contains the education centre comprising a 175-seat lecture theatre and teaching rooms, and the rst oor houses the library of 30 000 books and 70 student carrels. The building makes a simple rectangular footprint and has straightforward rectilinear planning. The form of the building adopts a linear pavilion model, accentuated by the barrel vault of the rst oor ceiling, the full-length clerestory and the masonry
ABSTRACT

covered way cum cloister. Split-face cream concrete masonry blocks have been used for the walls generally, with smooth-face cream blocks framing the openings. Bates Smart Architects have used the split-face blocks to lend a monumental, collegiate appearance to the building's envelope. The mass and texture of the material is brought into sharp counterpoint with the smooth stick framed glazed wall of the north elevation. The cloister provides a grand verandah to shade the west elevation, and where the concrete masonry wall wraps around to the east, offers the occupants the benets of thermal mass. The building is a creditable addition to the university. The masonry and its application by the architects sits comfortably in the context of this established college campus. Two 3

Year nished Location

1997

Trinity College, University of Melbourne,

Parkville, Victoria
Client

Trinity College Bates Smart

Architect

Structural, mechanical, electrical and hydraulic engineer

Addicoat Hogarth Wilson

Landscape architect Project manager Builder Salzer

Chris Dance Design

Kimpton Yuille Construction Pty Ltd Pioneer Building Products

Concrete masonry Total cost

$2.35m

D E TA I L S

Floor area

1050 m2

Number of oors Blocks

Southern White split-face 390 x 190 and 390 x 90: walls generally Southern White polished face 390 x 190 x 190: opening surrounds

Mercedes Benz National Headquarters

In Melbourne's southeastern suburb of Mulgrave, Mercedes Benz has recently established its new national headquarters. The car's qualities of comfort and reliability have been the basis of the image for the new building. The texture and colour of Boral's split-face concrete masonry have engendered a warmth and solidity in the building's public facade. While the building has an imposing corporate presence, it also addresses the public context by creating something like a stage set that partially envelopes the streetscape and contributes to its setting. As you turn into Lexia Place you rst encounter Boral's Sandstone split-face masonry on the re-built walls of an earlier building. The original brick walls, damaged as a result of structural movement, were stripped from the building and replaced with masonry matching that of the new building. The wall of this building merges with the masonry of

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the new boundary wall. This then describes a serpentine curve before reintegrating with the new building, and ending its sweep in an imposing portal at the foot of the cul-de-sac. The wall is the primary architectural gesture made evident in its continuity and mass (witness the rustication of the masonry and the deep reveals of openings). Other features of the building's design arise from operations on the wall. At rst oor level the wall is made to bulge making a sign for the entry. The large cut outs are made to reveal the car showroom, however the wall appears to stand apart from the body of the building and continues its path to the big portal.

Year nished Location Client

1997

Lexia Place, Mulgrave, Victoria Michael Dore in association with Eldon C Smith & Partners Adrian Newman & Associates

Mercedes Benz

Architect

Castles, Stephenson and Turner

Structural and civil engineer Electrical and mechanical engineer Hydraulic engineer

Eldon C Smith & Partners Rick Blake

Landscape architect Builder Hooker Concrete masonry Total cost

Cockram Ltd Boral

$6.2m $1350/m2

Cost breakdown
D E TA I L S

Floor area

4540 m2 Two

The architects in association, Michael Dore with Castles, Stephenson & Turner have grasped a nexus between material and idea. The colour and texture of the masonry has been well chosen to reify the abstract.

Number of oors Blocks

Boral Sandstone split-face Boral Sandstone smooth-face

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ABSTRACT

Year nished Location Client

1998

Grand Boulevard, Seaford, South Australia Tridente Architects CC&L Consultants

All Saints Catholic Primary School

All Saints Catholic Primary School

From Hadrian's Pantheon of 124 AD to Aldo Rossi's Elementary School of 1976: this project has its roots in the Italian Classical line. The project is primarily a formal composition with no marked contrasts in colours or texture. Concrete masonry, however, readily develops a patina as it weathers, which will lend a subtlety to the monolithic surface. Moreover the unit size of the concrete masonry is well suited to this scale of institutional building. The building is not unlike a cloistered college in its organization. It presents a formal public face to the street by adopting a greater proportion of wall to window, but opens onto the quadrangle with larger windows and covered ways. By adopting a familiar Australian vernacular of stick construction (albeit steel sticks) and corrugated iron, the integration of the covered ways makes a marriage of the European and Australian. In the tradition of the circular reading room, the library occupies the drum on the corner, making a hinge for the wings of the building. This building occupies a labile territory between old and new. The effect of the masonry, with its subtlety of colour and texture, is somewhat like the sepia toning of a recent photograph to prompt a double take on the new.

Architect

Structural and civil engineer

Electrical, mechanical, hydraulic and re services engineer

Caporaletti Consultants
Landscape architect Builder (nal stage) Concrete masonry Total cost

Tridente Architects Kennett Pty Ltd

Rocla

$2.4m $1000/m2

Cost breakdown
D E TA I L S

Floor area

2400 m2 Two

Number of oors Blocks

Rocla Seaford smooth-face Sand-blasted cant: sills

Maitland Visitors Centre

The Maitland Visitors Centre and Heritage Centre plays a central role in the promotion of Maitland as an historic centre of New South Wales. Sited in Ministers Park, the area is situated inside the Maitland ood plain and has been subjected to a number of signicant oods, the rst recorded in 1864. To symbolise the passing of these events into local folklore, the scheme incorporates a ood pole sculptural landscape comprising 16 recycled electricity poles sculpted by artists from the University of Newcastle Fine Art Department and of Maitland. An awareness of the continuing risk of occasional ooding has inuenced the design and the choice of building materials, notably ceramic oor tiles and face concrete block-work. Easy clean up and recommission of the building will be possible, minimising the operational down time. Being bounded on all four sides by a road and rail network the issue of noise reduction needed consideration. Suters Architects made use of the sound attenuating qualities of concrete masonry to mitigate the impact of these noise sources.

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Looking beyond the practical applications of concrete

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masonry, Suters Architects have explored the materials' textures as part of the representation of their design theme: the 'layering of time'. The public face of the building comprises trabeated structures each side of a forecourt. One is intact, the other infers the reconstructed ruin, with a steel frame Marline Newcastle as a diagrammatic representation of the former structure. A freestanding wall, braced with steelwork and featuring an unglazed opening stands as a ctional ruin now propped and unroofed for use as a plaza. The split-face blocks produce a rustication at the base of the walls, and the smooth-face blocks above imply a partial reconstruction. This theme continues into the interior of the main hall with face blockwork, engaged pilasters and standing pillars. Over this ruin is the broad canopy of the new roof, making a clerestory as it rests on the reconstructed walls. To complete this schema, the architects sourced tessellated tiles from Duckeneld Park House built in the 1850's and demolished in 1917. There are over 9000 tiles laid to the original pattern as they appeared in the courtyard of Duckeneld Park House. Suters Architects have made good use of the physical properties of split- and smooth-face concrete masonry and its potential in design for thematic allusion. One 7

Year nished Location

1997

Corner of High Street and New England

Highway, Maitland, NSW

Client

Maitland City Council Suters Architects Lindsay & Dynan Caleb Smith Consulting Ginkgo Landscaping Pritchard, Australian Museum

Architect

Structural engineer

Mechanical,electrical and hydraulic engineer Acoustic consultant Quantity surveyor

Ian Speight & Associates

Landscape architect

Displays designer Jonathan Project manager Builder D

Suters Architects Boral Besser

F McCloy $638 170 $1800/m2

Concrete masonry Total cost

Cost breakdown
D E TA I L S

Floor area

350 m2

Number of oors Blocks

Boral Sahara split-face Boral Sahara smooth-face 90 mm and 190 mm high

Wyong Civic Centre

Wyong has grown rapidly over the past forty years. During this period, the Shire Council's recurrent need for more ofce space saw the ad hoc development of its administration buildings, and the encroachment on existing public spaces and areas with civic functions. The result was a loss of the Shire's civic face. The re-establishment of a public presence was identied by Suters Architects as a primary issue in the redevelopment of the new Wyong Civic Centre. The addition of a major new building created an atrium linking the new with the old. This provided a new public focus to the interior of the building. Outside, facing Hely Street, the architects re-established the Shire's public face with an imposing formal arrangement including a curvilinear wall, which sweeps into the Centre's public entry. The wall, of Boral's Sahara shot-blasted blocks, is an
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integral part of the architect's formal and textural considerations of the design. Being readily associated with cut stone, the concrete masonry walls give the project a solid plinth rooted rmly to the ground, and present a contrast to the glass and metal surfaces situated behind and above. They have something of a medieval quality. Not unlike the remaining ramparts of an old walled city, they follow a serpentine path as if negotiating difcult terrain; and present a heavy, raking surface with just a few deeply recessed openings onto terraces situated below ground. The curved glazed walls of the administrative ofces Norman Disney & Young Integral Building Services

Year nished Location Client

1997

Hely Steet, Wyong, NSW Suters Architects Lindsay & Dynan

Wyong Shire Council

Architect

Structural and civil engineer

Electrical and mechanical engineer Hydraulic and re services engineer Landscape architect Builder

Suters Architects

Wyong Shire Council Boral Besser $9.2m $1050/m2

Concrete masonry Total cost

Cost breakdown
D E TA I L S

Floor area

6450 m2 Four 3.3 m to match adjoining existing

are separated from the masonry walls by a skylight over the Council chambers. The ofces slip past the wall and end in a cantilever. This again prompts thoughts of the metaphor of an old wall as a reconstructed ruin, behind which the new is built with the engineering and materials of an industrial age. As with the Maitland Visitor's Centre, Suters Architects have made good use of the textures of the blockwork; exploring both surface contrasts, and the rich ground for other cultural and historical interpretations.

Number of oors

Floor to oor height

building
Blocks

Boral Sahara split-face, 200 mm thick: retaining walls Boral Sahara smooth-face, 100 and 200 mm thick x 40 mm high: string courses and cappings Boral Sahara shot-blasted, 100 mm thick: curved walls

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ABSTRACT

Year nished Location Client

1996

Main Street, Seaford, South Australia Cheesman Architects Rust PPK Bestec

Seaford Ecumenical Mission

Seaford Ecumenical Mission

In language, our sentences are governed by a set of grammatical rules we collectively call syntax. These rules make sense of our words and give them meaning. In this project, Cheesman Architects have used contrasting masonry to make a kind of syntax for the building. Its various elements are drawn together in a composition which suggests to us how we are to read the building.

Architect

Structural and civil engineer

Electrical, mechanical and re services engineer Hydraulics Builder

Allan Turner Rocla

Minuzzo Construction Pty Ltd $1.7m $1000/m2

Concrete masonry Total cost

Cost breakdown
D E TA I L S

Floor area

1650

m2 One

Situated south of Adelaide, the Seaford Ecumenical Mission is a multi-denominational project involving the Catholic Church, Church of Christ, Anglican Church, Lutheran, and Uniting Church. The centre is part of the Noarlunga regional health service, fostering a holistic approach to health care by addressing the needs of both body and soul. It combines, under the one roof, a district community health centre, a worship centre, and a multi-purpose meeting space. The rustication of contrasting split-face blocks and parallel bands establishes both a base and a horizontal reading to the lineal planning. The horizontal bands are something like a musical stave for the sequence of windows, which are elaborated with contrasting masonry frames set proud of the wall. Consequently, the windows are linked in a series, like musical notes, rather than arbitrary holes in the wall. The consulting rooms to the west are contained in a building discrete in appearance. This together with the patterned masonry that stands the building in the vertical arrests the horizontal movement of the eye and reorients the building towards the public space to the south. The tower is the signpost for the centre. With alternating coloured layers it recalls its ancient predecessor the Italian campanile. The design also draws on a metaphor. The baptistery and worship space are the sacred areas of the building and feature expressive contrasting masonry. The architects have made reference to the nearby cliffs and Aboriginal ochre mines. This gurative pattern is given form by the curved walls of the building itself. Each concrete block has a groove down the centre, which when laid in conventional stretcher bond has the appearance of stack bond. This project is a good example of the use of contrasting masonry to characterise the form in the design. 9

Number of oors Blocks

Rocla split-face, smooth-face and Ryltex nishes Driftwood, London Cream, Desert Sand,

Colours

Seaford, Eureka

Primo Smallgoods Head Ofce

Concrete masonry is not a new material in light industrial projects. In the past the unassuming grey block was often used for the back-of-house warehouse shell. Today, the new generation of concrete masonry has become the public face of the light industrial plant. The Primo Smallgoods processing facility at Chullora presents a fair and textured face to the Hume Highway. Rocla split-face White blocks comprise the body masonry, with string courses and window surrounds of polished Ash Grey blocks. In this project the contrasting colour has been used to string the windows together and vary the wall surface to mitigate the bulk of the building.

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ABSTRACT

Year nished Location

1998

Hume Highway and Sherman Street,

Chullora, NSW
Client

P&M Quality Smallgoods Peter Brooks Architects SCP Consultants The new generation of concrete masonry puts a range of colours and textures in the hands of the designer. Together with the choice of bonds and block sizes, there are rich possibilities to manipulate the wall surface. In this project for example, the polished grey masonry lends tautness to the wall surface while the split-face gives rise to an appearance of density and m2 compression. The smooth surface 'stretches' in a horizontal layer while the weight of the rough textured masonry bears down on it. The perception of form is inuenced by subtle variations in the wall surface. The diversity in concrete masonry lends itself well, not only to the decorative, but also to the formal issues in buildings design. 11 E Shelmerdine & Partners Lend Lease Process Services Buckton Lysenko

Architect

Structural and civil engineer Electrical engineer

Mechanical engineer

Hydraulic and re services engineer Landscape architect

Precinct Landscapes Civil & Civic

Developer and builder Concrete masonry Total cost

Rocla

$28m $1600/m2

Cost breakdown
D E TA I L S

Floor area

17 500

Number of oors

Two storey ofce, single storey

processing area
Blocks

Rocla White split-face 190 mm Rocla White split-face 90 mm Rocla Grey polished banding with red feature stone Rocla Grey polished face and top: sills Rocla Grey polished two faces and top: cappings

Concrete Masonry Innovation.

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Concrete Masonry Association of Australia

PO Box 572 St Leonards NSW 1590 Telephone [02] 9903 7760 Facsimile [02] 9437 9703 For concrete masonry manufacturers contact CMAA

Cement and Concrete Association of Australia

Locked Bag 2010 St Leonards NSW 1590

ISBN 0 909407 39 8

August 1998

G80

DESIGNED AND PRODUCED BY

HELEN CHRISTINA RIX