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Why the fuss about SAHMRI’s pinecone?

Sep 16, 2013
SAHMRI takes shape. Photo: Nat Rogers / InDaily

SAHMRI takes shape. Photo: Nat Rogers / InDaily

Affectionately termed the pinecone or blue tongue (after the lizard), the SA Health and Medical Research Institute’s elegantly poised shingleback is already being heralded as a “game-changer” for South Australia.

But what’s so intriguing about this latest addition to North Terrace?

Gavin Kain

Gavin Kain

As a designer, the excitement for me lies predominately in the confidence that a project like this brings to the local architecture and design community. The team at architecture firm Woods Bagot, in collaboration with builders Hindmarsh , have delivered far more than just a highly tuned facility in which research will be conducted; the SAHMRI building is an expression of serious design intelligence and construction capability, and its importance to Adelaide cannot be overstated.

The $200 million federally funded bio-research facility forges new ground on almost every front of design and construction.

In an interview with Radio Adelaide’s The Plan (listen to the podcast at the end of this article), Gavin Kain from Woods Bagot notes that the building may appear as pre-conceived, formal sculpting by the architects, but this not the case.

“We really had no concept of what the building was going to look like prior to starting,” Kain told the show.

Work continues on SAHMRI

Work continues on SAHMRI

His team had to address the “new (Royal Adelaide) hospital to the west, with a shared plaza forecourt; clearly it had to address North Terrace; and clearly it had to address the views to the north, to Adelaide Oval and the Parklands – which ultimately led to the scenario that this building couldn’t have a back”.

That constraint ended up being the catalyst for the building’s final form. Not being able to have a back created an opportunity for the architects to envelop the building in a continuous façade.

The skin that adorns this giant shingleback is also testament to the pursuit of optimal performance. The structure has a series of triangular glazed and fritted window units in a diagonal grid pattern. Each window is shaded with a different sized hood, with the hood depth based on the window’s position relative to that of the sun. Woods Bagot carried out extensive solar modelling of the skin with internationally renowned consultants Atelier 10 to optimise passive solar performance.

From the outside of the building, the skin structure may appear to block out some of the views. Surprisingly, this is not the case, as the windows are so large and continuous that you don’t seem to notice the structural elements at all. The vistas on the upper levels looking out over the city are stunning.

The orientation of the building also presents a clever remedy to that old Adelaide planning dilemma – how to maintain a North Terrace address while not turning one’s back on the river.  SAHMRI is slightly rotated off the Adelaide city grid, creating a forecourt address to the south that is a shared plaza with the new Royal Adelaide Hospital; to the north, the building aligns with river and the re-developed Adelaide Oval.

The traditional model for research facilities features a very modest public interface, with the researchers buried deep in highly controlled recesses away from the public gaze.  Woods Bagot inverts this model, elevating the research and researcher to an inspired new public platform.

“One of the key concepts with the client was to reveal, or demystify, the research and inspire young people to understand what was going on,” Kain told The Plan.

Inside the building, mirrored double atrium spaces emphasise a vertically integrated open plan – think vast voids that run up the entire height of either side of the building.  The extensive visual connections throughout upper levels are more like that of a modern shopping mall than a research facility. Even the central lifts are fitted with glazed glass to maintain transparency.

The list of design triumphs for SAHMRI is long and is still evolving as the project speeds toward completion before the end of the year.

The building was designed to have just six flower columns on the ground supporting its entire weight – designed to lend the whole structure a sense of levitation. The entire weight of the building is channeled through diagonal columns on every level – up to 36 seperate columns on the top floor – which all slope down to two sets of three columns on the ground. Quite phenomenal.

For our state, SAHMRI is a landmark investment in design intelligence. We haven’t done a building like this before – one shaped by its needs and uses, which the architect responded to, rather than the other way round. It’s a true watershed moment for architecture in this state.

I was lucky enough to get a tour of the building with Woods Bagot. Towards the end, as we looked out at the magnificent view north to Adelaide Oval, Kain commented on another not-too-distant future: “I look forward to when the Test match cricket is on at Adelaide – when the commentators pause and the camera pans around to see SAHMRI and all the cranes from the hospital and the Convention Centre …  it’s changing the way the world sees Adelaide.”

 

John Byleveld is founder of the Plan Radio. He teaches at the Design Studio at Adelaide University, School of Architecture and the Built Environment, and works at Architecture & Design Firm Hames Sharley.

 Podcast1 To listen to the Plan podcast just click play below.

 

 

 

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