to the gym via the fire stairs for staff wanting to exercise in the fresh air .
Design Challenges The first big challenge was strengthening the existing columns in the basement and under the Bute Lane bridge link to take the new structure . This required the addition and expansion of the existing pile bases , as well as adding new rebar and width to the columns to increase their strength profile .
Architecturally , the new building is designed around the basement grid layout - which all the Merchant Place buildings are based on - which creates a nice direct connection to the historical buildings , while showing how the same structural base can yield very different architectural results depending on how you approach it .
Another interesting challenge was dealing with the existing levels on the bridge link crossing over Bute Lane . The landscaping and water feature there previously covered a 1.5m step up where the bridge spans over Bute Lane . The size of the building was such that the architects wanted to create a unified ground floor which was bigger than the upper portion of the slab . To overcome this , a new suspended ‘ bond-dek ’ slab was created that floats over the lower portion of the existing concrete slab . It also created a useful void space for dealing with the new services from the building .
The different uses that the architects wanted to incorporate into the building all had their own unique design requirements and the building needed to be flexible enough to accommodate all of these while also remaining economically viable .
This was achieved by creating a central services core that then supplied the various different use areas on the different floors , freeing up the bulk of the floor plate to be used as necessary .
One of the big organisational questions was around where to position the EduCentre . Initial thinking was that it needed to be situated on the ground floor to accommodate an external play area . This created a clash as the piazza space
PRECINCT PLAN
8 Merchant Place 37