The panels were attached to the building on each floor at the edges of the balcony slab with custom-designed steel bolts and brackets. They are angled out to minimally obstruct the view from apartments, with the panels essentially acting as quirky-shaped frames of the cityscape.
While strong, the panels are also lightweight – another important characteristic because each one had to be hoisted into place and fastened to the building. Using a GFRP panel made assembly easier and safer for construction workers, who didn’t have to wrestle heavy panels into place hundreds of feet above ground.
The panels rely on the free form version of mouldCAM’s structural composite technology, ShapeShell™. “It is a matrix of reinforcement, vinyl ester resin and adhesives that has been developed to address the needs of the construction industry,” says Toby Whitfield, group managing director of mouldCAM. ShapeShell is impact and corrosion resistant. It’s also fire retardant, meeting specifications pertaining to flame spread and smoke propagation as set forth in Australian building codes.
Composite panels on the apartment building’s façade frame the residents’ views of Melbourne. Photo Credit: Peter Bennetts
Each panel has a foam core that was cut to precise specifications on a CNC router. The panels were fabricated via vacuum infusion and post cured at 70 C for six hours at an off-shore contract facility. Afterward, each panel was numbered so construction crews would know exactly where to place them on the apartment building to create Barak’s face.
Design, documentation, testing and certification of the project took four months, with manufacturing lasting another six months. Completed in late 2014, the Swanston Square building has won awards and attracted attention. That’s not surprising, given that what’s on the outside is so different from a run-of-the-mill apartment tower. “It’s an absolute knockout of a building,” says Judd.
