Thursday, June 5, 2008
Site 3: Deakin University
This image depicts a view into the new atrium space of the extension to Deakin Uni Waterfront Campus. Its creation provides lighting to all adjoining spaces.
Medium Shot depicting the bolted steel connections of the new atrium space
Exterior shot detailing the concrete floor extension
This image depicts the concrete staircase and also displays some services in the piping hanging below the ceiling
Article 7: New Look and new role for old CUB site
New look and new role for old CUB site
Architectural plans for the derelict CUB site (middle bottom) include these from Ashton Raggatt MacDougall (left), NHArchitecture (top) and Denton Corker Marshall (right).
A RADICAL $800 million plan for the derelict Carlton and United Breweries site will give Melbourne's civic centre a fitting counterbalance to the Shrine of Remembrance.
Developer Grocon, which last year bought the 1.6-hectare site from RMIT for $39 million, yesterday unveiled its designs for the Swanston Street site.
Five of Melbourne's most progressive architects have been selected to design a mix of offices, shops and apartments for the site, which has lain dormant since the 1980s. The brewery was demolished in 1989.
The plans released yesterday are only preliminary drawings, but are likely to closely resemble final designs for buildings that will begin rising by late 2008, Grocon chief executive Daniel Grollo said yesterday.
Grocon's previous projects include Crown Casino, the QV Centre and the Rialto.
Among the designs is a plan by leading Melbourne architects Ashton Raggatt McDougall for the site's pivotal building: a 20- storey office tower facing down Swanston Street towards the Shrine of Remembrance in St Kilda Road.
Architect Howard Raggatt said the building would be a new gateway to Melbourne, akin to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. The Shrine of Remembrance was a "profoundly symbolic element" of Melbourne's city centre, Mr Raggatt said, and it was crucial a significant building at the other end of the city faced the Shrine.
"The old brewery on the CUB site told a very iconic Aussie story about Melbourne: a brewery at one end of the city, and the Anzac march and the death-and-glory material at the other," he said. "The brewery was a little bit ocker, but maybe there's now an opportunity for something more significant on this site."
Architectural firms Denton Corker Marshall, McBride Charles Ryan, Minifie Nixon and NHArchitecture will also work on the site.
The taller buildings - including Denton Corker Marshall's 50-storey tower - will be built near the city end of the site, with lower structures tapering off towards Melbourne University.
The Royal Australian Institute of Architect's Victorian president Philip Goad welcomed the plans. But he warned that the "wonderful monumental gestures" in the designs could be harmed if market forces pushed the development the wrong way. "We can only hope these great ideas do not fall victim to a speculative property play," he said.
The plans will now go to the Government, with Planning Minister Justin Madden expected to make a judgement by the end of the year.
As one of the most significant projects in development in Victoria at the moment, i thought it was relevant to post the plans for the new CUB development in the city.Article 6: Bluescope Steel Life Cycle Analysis
Posted on the Bluescope steel website at url address
http://www.bluescopesteel.com/go/about-bluescope-steel/student-information/life-cycle-analysisThe Application of Life Cycle Analysis by BlueScope Steel
Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) is an important tool used by BlueScope Steel to improve both steelmaking processes and products. In broader terms, it assists in reducing the impact of these products and processes on the environment.
1. The Development of a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) Model
Although LCA had its genesis in the 1960s, its application was not widespread until the early 1990s. Since then, much progress has been made in the development of widely accepted methodologies, including a number of international standards (ISO14040 to 14044).
Today, LCA is applied to a wide range of applications. Much of the development and application has been carried out in Europe and North America, but interest in Australia is growing strongly and is supported by governments, industry and consumer groups.
2. What is LCA?
Life Cycle Analysis is an important tool for both analysing processes to find ways to improve them, and assessing materials and products.
LCA consists of two components: inventory analysis and impact analysis.
Inventory analysis involves summarising the material and energy flows for a defined system. The 'system' is the combination of processes and activities that manufacture a product or achieve an outcome. This typically includes all of the processes associated with the mining of resources, supply of energy, manufacture of the product, use of the product and disposal and recycle. The resultant inventory is a list of the resources consumed and the emissions associated with the system.
Impact assessment involves interpreting the significance of the resource consumption and emissions determined in the inventory stage. In life cycle assessment, these are restricted to environmental impacts. This aspect of LCA still requires further development before it is widely-accepted.
There are numerous approaches currently in use, ranging from simplified methods based on a limited number of parameters, to complex systems covering a wide range of parameters that achieve single valued effect scores. (At some point all methodologies require subjective value judgments.)
Energy and carbon dioxide emissions are just two of the many indicators for impact assessment.
3. BlueScope Steel's LCA Model
BlueScope Steel began working on an LCA model in 1993. From the outset, we determined that our approach would be rigorous and stand up to international scrutiny.
Our model is used for both product and process assessment. It examines the material use and emissions in a product, from raw materials through to end of life. It also assesses the impact of products and processes on the environment - from the mining of the coal and ore which goes into the production of iron, through the steelmaking and manufacturing processes, to disposal by processes such as recycling at the end of a product's useful life.
It does this by examining such things as:
- Wastes generated during production;
- Energy consumed during production and the use of the product;
- Fresh water consumption during production; and
- The amount of recycling possible with the product.
4. A Case Study: LCA in the Building Industry
Within the context of the building industry, LCA can be applied to:
- Product assessment
- Eco labelling
- Process improvement
- Eco design
- New technology evaluation
Consider a building as an example. For the energy case, the analysis would consider the energy embodied in the building, and the energy consumed during the life of the building.
The former depends on the materials used and the fabrication methods, while the latter depends on the orientation, window areas, window types and surface treatments, lighting systems, air conditioning systems, level of insulation, and thermal characteristics of walls and roof.
In a typical project home with brick veneer on a concrete slab, steel framing and a steel sheet roof, the energy embodied in the building materials is small (around three per cent) compared with the energy used to operate it over its life.
As most of this energy is consumed in lighting, heating and cooling, the most effective way of decreasing the life cycle requirements of a house is to use building materials and systems that can reduce the energy required to run the house.
To that end, passive solar design principles, together with the use of energy efficient household appliances and lighting, are key factors in reducing energy consumption (and resulting carbon dioxide emissions from the generation of that energy).
In addition to energy, a comprehensive LCA will include a range of other environmental impacts such as greenhouse gas emissions and solid waste.
A less than comprehensive LCA model can give misleading results. Examples would be where whole-of-life energy usage of a product is not included together with the embodied energy from the components and fabrication; or, alternatively, where only energy usage is incorporated (and other resource utilisation such as water and raw materials is ignored).
For every product analysed, a large number of calculation steps are necessary for a meaningful answer.
5. LCA and the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games
As a contribution to Australia's Olympic initiative, we undertook to conduct an LCA of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games (including an analysis of Olympic venues) on behalf of the organising body, SOCOG.The comprehensive study looked at the buildings and infrastructure constructed for the Games, their utilisation during the Games itself, transportation, waste management, and carbon credits (the question of how many trees should be planted to offset carbon released during the Games).
For the purposes of the study, the LCA model was adapted for the Olympic Model.
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6. LCA and Cleaner Production
LCA is a powerful tool for achieving cleaner production for both processes and products. It is also a practical tool that can be used in partnerships between manufacturers and product users, ensuring the raw materials used in construction and manufacturing can be used by builders, architects and designers to achieve efficient and sustainable designs.Today, steel products are being designed to be more environmentally sustainable, enabling easier and faster construction, more efficient utilisation, and ease of recycling of components at the end of their product life.
In the future, BlueScope Steel will continue to develop and apply LCA as a tool to support cleaner production, new business, product and technology development, and environmental management.
Article 5: Bluescope On Track for a stronger second half
Bluescope On Track For Stronger Second Half
Herald Sun Business homepage, May 12 2008
Australia's largest steel maker said today the company was on track to deliver net profit for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008 of a "similar order of magnitude" to the first half result of $305 million.
"The strong earnings improvement in the second half has been driven by very strong global steel prices," BlueScope managing director and chief executive Paul O'Malley told analysts in a conference call.
BlueScope said the rising price of raw materials such as iron ore and coking coal and tightening supply was underpinning the higher prices for steel products.
"If steel prices hold then we'll have a good start to fiscal year 09," Mr O'Malley added.
The higher steel prices, however, are expected to put BlueScope's operations in Australia under some pressure, with an expected tightening of margins in the coated business, Mr O'Malley said.
Raw materials costs have risen significantly amid supply constraints for coking coal and increasing demand for iron ore.
Nippon Steel Corp, Japan's largest steel maker, agreed to pay BHP Billiton Ltd and Mitsubishi Corp three times more for coking coal this Japanese financial year after heavy rain in Queensland resulted in what one analyst described as a "supply apocalypse".
Meanwhile, Brazilian giant Vale, the world's largest producer of iron ore, has agreed with steelmakers to a price rise of between 65 per cent and 70 per cent for its ore in 2008.
Rio Tinto Ltd and rival BHP Billiton are yet to settle and are holding out for a freight premium to be factored into the settlement.
BlueScope has settled about 10 per cent of its iron ore supply contracts, with Mr O'Malley expecting "higher prices" to be achieved between Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton and Asian steel mills.
"If you take iron ore, coking coal, alloys and scrap it is probably a cost increase of over $1 billion, so that is a big challenge for us as a business to manage," Mr O'Malley said.
BlueScope said the strong Australian dollar continued to be a challenge for the company.
BlueScope shares dropped 16 cents to $10.84 by 1249 AEST.As it has been predicted that steel prices are to increase dramatically, i thought that this article on the financial impact of the industry woull dbe relevant as it will become a significant factor for future architects and construction managers.
Major Assignment Overall design
Upon deciding to base my design on Villa Savoye and use reinforced concrete and steel i individually came up with this concept for the office building and warehouse after a few weeks of sketching away.
Major Assignment Research + Development
Having decided to use a reinforced concrete and steel structure, i reviewed the process of permanant form work in a reinforced concrete slabs and came up with this 3d model to give an idea of how the finished product will look.
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