It is the first time in the award’s 16-year history that two projects share the award.
The judges said the $1 billion Royal Children’s Hospital is regarded as one of the world’s leading hospitals – both from a medical and aesthetic point of view. With a peak construction workforce of more than 2,100, the scale and complexity presented many coordination and logistical challenges during the four-year construction.
Marton Marosszeky, chief judge said:
“Constructing a new hospital next to an existing one that must continue to operate is a major construction challenge and Lend Lease’s approach ensured that the construction and transition of patients could occur in tandem,” he said.
At 11 storeys and over 35,000 square metres the RMIT Swanston Academic facility is an imposing building in one of Melbourne’s busiest precincts. The project was delivered 108 days ahead of schedule and $3.4 million under budget. The facility includes leading-edge teaching and specialist learning spaces and is home to 850 academic and administration staff with a student capacity of 6,000.
“The location of the building made juggling the requirements of the already high existing foot and vehicle traffic with a busy construction site a major challenge. However the team were able to deliver a state-of-the-art combination of practical rooms for teaching and social, study and open spaces to encourage learning.”
“Obviously we were comparing very diverse projects: they varied vastly in scope, size and technology. All finalists have demonstrated our industry’s capacity for innovation and design excellence. These attributes underpin the future prosperity of our society. The cost and quality of our infrastructure contributes significantly to the competitiveness of our economy, and hence our prosperity as a nation,” Marosszeky said. Sapphire provided Anodising in 8 finishes to the facade and Interiors of to the RMIT Swanston Academic Building (SAB) for infomation and photos use the following link
http://www.sapphirealuminium.com.au/index.php?task=projects&num=82
view a vdieo of the project on the following link
