Main Design Components
The building comprises 5 basement and 5 office
levels with the 6th level being a roof top restaurant.
Each typical office floor wraps around the core
that consists of services and vertical circulation
to various levels of the building, thus providing a
robust and flexible office space for a multi-tenanted
occupation. The outdoor spaces on the ground floor
create an intimate courtyard, and the decked roof
area, which incorporates a restaurant, provides an
outdoor recreational space.
The main access to the building is through
Ferguson Road, with basement parking accessible
through Melville Road. The main entrance from the
street is easily identified by a framed colonnade with
a staircase leading to a double volume entrance
foyer, characterised by natural light and sculpted
light fittings. Entrance to the main foyer from the
basement parking channels one through a narrow
staircase into a double volume space.
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Access to office level is through lifts and a fire
escape staircase that performs a dual function
as both an emergency exit and a communication
staircase. The conventional fire escape staircase
would normally be in an enclosed 2 hour firerated structure with solid walls. However, in the
project, the staircase has been opened up to form
part of and an extension to the lift lobby, offering
opportunities for turning a small space into larger,
open communal spaces. This was enabled by the
use of a FENCO water curtain spray system on glass
shopfronts leading to the lobby, thereby creating a
2 hour fire-rated space. The offices are serviced by
two stretcher lifts from the ground floor to the roof
level. Two sets of fire escape staircases located in
the core, are accessible through the ring corridor
around the core allowing for flexibility of occupancy
of more than one tenant. One fire escape staircase
exits the building through the basement on ground
level in Melville Street.
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