City: Sydney

UTS Central is a vibrant student hub and faculty space at the heart of the University’s city campus. The 17-storey building is home to the new UTS library, study and teaching spaces, the high-tech Hive Superlab and a publicly accessible food court’. AECOM provided structural and civil engineering services on the project and faced several complex design challenges which included a dramatic architectural design, as well as aligning the new structure with the campus grid axes and the intersecting Broadway, a major thoroughfare adjacent to the campus.

Due to its location on the fringe of the CBD in Sydney there were significant limitations on space and opportunity for the UTS campus to spread and grow horizontally, this was the driving force behind the concept to establish a new ‘vertical campus’. Critical to the project’s success in achieving this vertical campus philosophy was the structural solution developed by AECOM. The use of raking columns to minimise transfer structure created expansive column-free spaces through detailed coordination of the existing and new structure. This will provide UTS with the ability to use the floor plates for multiple modes and the flexibility for adaptation as teaching and learning needs evolve over time.

This vertical campus philosophy required significant engineering solutions and innovations to deliver a building structure capable of providing the integrated learning environments. The structure also had to stand out and project its presence within a precinct of Sydney famed for its strong architectural design. These requirements presented significant challenges from a structural engineering perspective to deliver across several fronts including;

• Raking columns inclined up to 28° and slender columns of 400mm in spaces up to 13.1m tall.
• A structural core that accommodates not only the buildings iconic twist but also a more subtle “lean” to the north, creating an overturning action in that direction.
• Retention and reuse of the existing basement that contained plant equipment servicing adjoining buildings, requiring continuous operation throughout the project.
• Typical spans of 17m and 18m long within a building approx. 66m tall, 55m wide and 80m long (podium dimensions) and a maximum floor span of over 21 m long.
• Achieving an industry leading energy rating, featuring an innovative district tri-gen cooling connection to the building from Central Park.
• Integration with existing buildings that were still live environments.
• Facilitate extreme façade design using 3600 glass pieces made from 48 types of glass, the largest measuring 6 x 2.3m and weighing almost 700kg.

Awarded 5-stars by the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA), UTS Central incorporates several energy-saving measures that ensure it’s a green building. These measures include custom-made automatic sunshades, adjustable louvre blinds within a closed-cavity façade on all upper levels and a plastic-free food court where all single-use plastic items have been eliminated and replaced with reusable, recyclable and compostable alternatives. AECOM also facilitated the inclusion of a district cooling connection which sources cooling thermal energy via underground pipes below Broadway from Central Park. This connection means an almost three percent reduction in UTS’s greenhouse gas emissions (over 1,000 tonnes a year).

Not only does UTS Central bring striking architectural variety to its precinct, it will act as a benchmark project within the region attracting more visitors and students to the surrounding area and succeeding in delivery a truly future ready educational environment. AECOM are proud to have been a key delivery partner in this final component of UTS’ decade long City Campus redevelopment Master Plan.

AECOM was engaged by Transport for New South Wales for a Future Transport Requirements Study as part of the Circular Quay Precinct Renewal Program. The goal of the project was to define existing and future multimodal transportation access and pedestrian-movement requirements to help inform concept planning and design.

Circular Quay is widely recognised as an iconic destination — owing partly to its historical role as the place where the first British colony in Australia was founded, and partly to the presence of two world-famous landmarks, the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge.  Circular Quay Station is also now the 10^th-busiest station on the Sydney Trains network, whilst Circular Quay itself is the network hub for water transportation in Sydney — with seven major ferry routes, as well as multiple tourist and private cruises stopping there. In future, the precinct will be the northern terminus and interchange for Sydney Light Rail, another iconic AECOM project currently being delivered, and acts as a key attractor and thoroughfare for international and local visitors, creating a vibrant and — at peak times — congested pedestrian environment.

Our Transport Advisory team provided transportation-planning, demand-analysis and pedestrian-modelling services. Problem-solving and collaboration were vital to the project’s success, as Circular Quay is the only location in Sydney where heavy rail, buses, ferries, cruise ships and the future light rail converge to form a true multimodal transport interchange. Our team provided an excellent understanding of the precinct’s user groups, movement patterns and pinch points for a variety of time periods and for different times of year. Complex and dynamic pedestrian movements include commuters catching a ferry and transferring to rail, visitors taking photographs, people attending performances at the Sydney Opera House, and ocean cruise passengers walking with luggage. Our Transport Advisory team was faced with the challenge of modelling all of these uses and creating a holistic baseline of movements, and then forecasting future changes.

We used a range of survey techniques, including observational, video and count surveys, as well as identifying and bringing in a specialist sub-consultant to analyse mobile phone-movement data that provided enhanced intelligence on the nuances of movement patterns such as:

• The average visit duration across the precinct and within specific sub-areas
• Visitor flows, including tracking of key paths between origin and destination
• Seasonal trends, such as the impact of public holidays and festivals
• The impact of the weather, such as very hot weather and rain.

Using a range of data-capture techniques and mathematical models, we gained a holistic understanding of current patterns of movement and used this to develop spatial requirements across a range of infrastructure elements, including walkways, footpaths and promenades, ferry wharves, rail station platforms, gates and concourses.

This analysis was then used to project future activity, incorporating demographic analysis and forecasting, thereby providing evidence to future-proof the precinct’s master plan. This provided our client, the Government of New South Wales, with invaluable information to enhance Circular Quay not only as a must-visit destination for tourists to Sydney, but also as a vibrant, exciting and enjoyable space for Sydneysiders.

With a background as Australia’s multicultural broadcaster, the principal function of the Special Broadcasting Service Corporation (SBS) is to provide multilingual, multicultural and Indigenous radio, television and digital media services that inform, educate and entertain all Australians. Informed by its special Charter, SBS’s purpose is to inspire all Australians to celebrate diversity and in doing so, contribute to social cohesion.

Across five television channels, SBS delivers a unique mix of Australian produced and international programs in more than 65 languages; bold, provocative programing for a younger demographic; a national free-to-air Indigenous channel, and on the subscription platform, the best of international movies and local, grass-roots arts and entertainment.

In 2011, SBS engaged Strategy to help develop a vision for its Sydney headquarters, to equip the organisation to address the challenges of media convergence and to leverage opportunities from the cross-platform offering of its flagship programs and services. The physical working environment needed to support SBS’s objectives of a collaborative and high-performance delivery focus.

Employees from the commercial divisions of SBS Media, Distribution and Subscription Television were successfully relocated in the Agile Work Place Pilot space in October 2013. SBS has since observed a measurable lift in the successful cross-divisional collaboration of teams around its strategic objectives and a marked improvement in the efficient sharing of skills and resources; all critical to its plan of continuously maximising the public value of investment in SBS.

All SBS employees have benefited from the creation of a new Content Hub and additional collaboration spaces in its atrium, transforming a tired, underutilised area into a state-of-the-art presentation space for a wide range of SBS internal and external events. The spaces have also been used as a backdrop for a number of SBS internal television productions.

“Building a physical work environment to support the agile and cross-platform way in which SBS delivers its programs and services was central to our broader plan to equip the organisation to continue effectively delivering on its Charter, and to implement new and innovative initiatives to secure our success in a competitive media landscape.”
Martin Wright, Manager Corporate Services & Facilities, SBS Corporation.

Faced with increasing pressure from competition and urban growth, the Sydney Ports Corporation was looking for someone to help them plan for the future. They turned to AECOM to prepare a Port Master Plan that would provide the basis for making important decisions regarding port development to the year 2020 and beyond.

The initial focus began with the growing need for improved productivity at the ports, environmental and social issues, and the limitations on land and water availability. Also, the need for land transport connections and how to integrate these into an integrated plan that would serve future investors, government planners, and regulatory agencies, all led to a study that included emphasis on the following areas:

• Analyzing cargo and shipping trends;
• Assessing site conditions;
• Preparing port layout options;
• Analyzing capacity;
• Identifying environmental issues; and
• Identifying intermodal issues.

After close collaboration with the client and assessing various options, both a master plan and a staged development program were created that would serve as a roadmap to move forward with key features that included:

• Providing for container traffic growth at Botany;
• Preserving Sydney Harbor port operations in the medium term;
• Meeting demand for multi-purpose dry and liquid bulk terminals;
• Improving rail and road access;
• Reserving strategic land for port-related industry; and
• Ensuring compatibility with Sydney Airport operations.

A key theme of the master plan was supporting the Corporation’s commitment to sustainable development and minimizing impacts to the environment and local communities.

Bricklayers have called their involvement in its construction a “career highlight”, and soon it will be where the next generation of business careers are nurtured.

Designed by internationally-renowned architect Frank Gehry, the University of Technology, Sydney’s (UTS) new Business School, with its rippling façade and angled columns, is one of the most iconic buildings currently under construction in Australia, setting a precedent for future architectural design.

Having been referred to as a “cluster of tree houses”, a “crumpled paper bag” and an “urban sandcastle”, the Dr Chau Chak Wing building’s unique masonry façade—contorting and twisting in a three-dimensional plane for the full height of the 14-storey structure—created structural engineering challenges requiring innovative solutions.

In collaboration with UTS and the brick supplier, AECOM developed a unique brick, tie, mortar and backing system that solved the load, constructability and complex geometrical issues, allowing a near impossible feat of engineering to be realised.

“There is no building in the world that has bricks like this”, Stephen Giblett, AECOM’s Building Structures Lead, told ABC Radio’s “By Design” program.

“The bricklayers on this project are very proud of what they’ve done, because they’ve taken standard bricklaying and they’ve gone back to being the grand masons of centuries past to create something beautiful.”

“One of the bricklayers even has a tattoo on his arm of the bricks which shows the pride they have in what they’ve achieved, and which results in the building’s defining characteristic.”

It’s not just the outside of the Dr Chau Chak Wing building where boundaries are being pushed.

AECOM worked with UTS to embed several sustainability features within the building that again set it apart as a 21st century learning space.

One of the challenges AECOM faced in partnership with UTS was how to heat and cool the building sustainably. The interior consists of various different zones – lecture theatres, offices and meeting rooms – all requiring different methods of temperature control.

The solution? Provide dedicated air conditioning units for each zone, and sensor technology to minimise wastage when a zone is unoccupied. The building also uses a higher than normal volumes of outdoor air to cool fan coil units.

This fresh-air feature, combined with shorter air conditioning ducts means fans don’t need to work as hard, and air-cooled chillers mean the building does not consume much water in the process. In fact, water usage is kept to a minimum across the building, with a fire water reclamation system and water-efficient appliances fitted throughout.