Philip Hopkins August 01, 2012
The impressive Craigieburn train maintenance centre.
HBO+EMTB's Melbourne studio has been shortlisted in the World Architectural Awards for its design of the Craigieburn train maintenance centre.
The 1.2-hectare building - longer then the Melbourne Cricket Ground - was opened in February and is the largest of its type in the world, housing up to 25 trains at any one time.
The challenge for HBO+EMTB was to design an attractive building spanning 20,000 square metres that maintained its core purpose as a highly functional and mechanised space. The firm used Colorbond steel for the undulating roof.
The design utilises the water captured off the building's roof to supply a 125,000-litre rainwater tank that is then recycled throughout the building for use by the trains' wash plant and bathrooms.
Hydronic in-slab heating has been used throughout the workshop's floor and cross-flow ventilation has been maximised to reduce the need for mechanical cooling.
Another Melbourne architecture firm has triumphed in a different forum. Collingwood company Dankor Architecture has won the Most Innovative Timber Award, at the Building Designers Association of Victoria annual awards, for a house at Red Hill on the Mornington Peninsula.
The company also took out the residential design - alterations and additions prize in the over $500,000 construction cost category - for the same house. The wrong image was attributed to Dankor's winning entry in BusinessDay on Monday. The mistake came in information supplied.
One of the key features of the house was the use of plywood. Plywood lines the walls - separated by five-millimetre shadow lines that run continuously across wall and ceiling - and forms the door jambs, window reveals and door panels. The joinery has been detailed in plywood, the building itself is clad in black-painted plywood concealing the 60 tonnes of steel used to cantilever the dwelling.
Meanwhile, Quest Serviced Apartments has been awarded the Innovators Award at the Australia New Zealand Pacific Hotel Investment Conference, in recognition of the company's role in driving the growth of the serviced apartments market. The award is the first of its kind, specifically acknowledging the success of the Quest business model in the accommodation industry.