TWIGGING TO TIMBER – Fivex scores big benefits

Developers of the second tower at 276 Flinders St in the CBD have broken the mould by rejecting a cement foundation in favour of steel and timber.

The building at the Fivex site on the corner of Elizabeth St was finished six months ahead of schedule, with a 10 per cent cost saving and a 25 per cent reduction in carbon emissions.

Fivex chief Lesli Berger said he was pleased at how it had been delivered using cutting edge designs and materials.

His advice to developers who don’t want to use traditional building methods is: “Work with architects and builders who are ready to push the boundaries and do the due diligence to come up with innovative solutions”.

Fivex appointed architects Baldasso Cortese to design the five- storey, 4000sqm tower overlooking Elizabeth St and Mulitplex to build it.

“The lightweight structural solution adopted for the building extension enabled service tradies to continue work before the steel framing was finished” Mr Berger said.

In a traditional build, a construction company would need to wait for the reinforced concrete to fully set and strip the formwork supports before the service trades could start work on that floor.

“Using steel allowed what would have been an 18-month project to be cut to less than 12 months.”

The project used timber flooring and double-glazed glass walls to further reduce environmental impact and gain a five-star Green Star rating.

“The use of cross-laminated timber (CLT) and lightweight steel is still fairly immature, with the industry generally preferring a mix of concrete and steel in commercial builds of any significant scale”.  Mr Berger said.

“From our understanding this is certainly the first commercial project in Melbourne that has been built using this specific method.”

Ensuring minimal disruption to the site’s existing traders was also vital to Fivex.  This was enabled buy having the cross-laminated timber panels produced off-site.

Compared with traditional methods, this had a negligible impact on the retail tenants and foot traffic at this congested intersection opposite Flinders St station. “The solution not only ticked the structural and practical box, but also extended into the realm of environmentally sustainable design.” Mr Berger said.

“While wood is already a good insulator of heat, the manufacturing process of CLT delivered an additional thermal benefit by preventing air leakage within the building envelope.  This generates stabilised temperatures, which in turn lowers heating and cooling costs.”

“And just as pleasing is that the building methods used saved us 10 per cent on the overall costs.”

The City of Melbourne is yet to resolve issues around the display of Fivex’s illuminated sign on the side of the tower, Riverview House, overlooking Flinders St.

Olga Galacho

Herald Sun

26 June, 2019