Administration Office & Council Chambers
We were requested by the Shire of East Pilbara to provide our design expertise to upgrade two building entities into one cohesive building solution. The design solution needed to hide the 1960’s painted concrete block construction of one building and the many transportable buildings (dongas) that were connected to form the other building.
Our solution was to clad the buildings in metallic composite panels, which effectively gave it a much more contemporary external finish. We also provided an all year weather protected external connection for the two buildings that successfully formed a cohesive design for the front facade. The importance of having two separate functions of the now connected buildings was achieved by constructing 2 entry statements associated with each car park.
Our client was greatly delighted with the outcome and stated: “Spending the money that we did, it has increased the perception that the total building is all new and of a value 6 times greater than what we spent.”
As designers it gave us great pleasure to meet the objectives our client desired by providing a design that looked fantastic.
Newman SES
The original design of this building was based on the State Emergency Services standard plan for the Perth region. We were instructed by the client to transform this design so it was suitable for the Pilbara region, which covers nearly 380,000km². Due to the significance of this building, we assigned it a Level 4 rating of importance under the BCA, essentially making it a critical building to post-disaster recovery. However, no guiding documents on such a building existed for the region. As a result, it was necessary to research suitable guidance documents that would allow the Contractor to effectively tender on the project and deliver a building that was required to be ‘the last building standing’ in a worst case scenario.
As the proposed site had a number of existing buildings, it was necessary to add elements that aided in wayfinding. As a result, a suitable entry statement was provided which added distinct form and colour and at night increased lighting highlighted this important element.
Dangerous Goods Storage Facility
This project was initiated by a Local Council approaching us, as they were aware of our technical design capabilities. Given our past experience with such facilities, it is of critical importance to ensure that the design complies with numerous codes and standards. We chose to engage our own consultant with certification authority as part of our project team, which proved to be very successful, as it ruled out third party involvement and submission. In addition, by having the Certifier on our team it enabled design, construction and code issues to be resolved immediately as they arose. The client was happy knowing that we had their interests at heart and having the services of an understanding Certifier that was client focused. At the completion of the project all code compliances were achieved with minimum cost expenditure to the client.