SAHMRI RESEARCH INSTITUTE BY WOODS BAGOT

The institute is set to be a world-class centre of research excellence located in a medical precinct that will also be home to the new Royal Adelaide Hospital (NRAH).

The institute’s nine research modules will house up to 700 researchers looking at ways to foster innovation and improvements in health services, leading to improved health outcomes for the whole community.

The sculptural qualities of SAHMRI’s form aim to inspire and promote the building’s function.

The transparent facade showcases two internal atriums, while the building’s form is further expressed by its unique triangulated dia-grid facade inspired by the skin of a pine cone.

The form’s articulated skin adapts and responds to its environment, becoming a living organism that responds to the position of the sun.

The SAHMRI design and construction team are working collaboratively to deliver a flexible, adaptable, healthy and sustainable facility which is on target for a LEED GOLD rating.

The key driver of the building design is to foster collaboration between researchers, achieved through architecture that allows a visual connection between floors and an interconnecting spiral stair.

Following an intensive environmental analysis with consultants Atelier 10, Woods Bagot used parametric modelling tools to integrate environmental, programmatic, and formal requirements into the facade.

“Woods Bagot’s global team worked on the project together, including designers from the Adelaide, London, New York and San Francisco studios,” said Senior Associate, Enzo Caroscio.

“Key to the success of the SAHMRI is its central proposition: a new and liberating lab typology that promotes collaboration and medical discovery, attracting the best researchers from around the world,” said Woods Bagot Principal, Peter Miglis.

Location: Adelaide, Australia 
Architect: Woods Bagot 
Leadership Team: ​Thomas Masullo, Enzo Caroscio, Peter Miglis, Anoop Menon 
Civil / Structural / Facade Engineers:Aurecon 
Building Services Engineers: Norman, Disney & Young 
Facade Environmental Consultants:Atelier 10 
ESD Consultants: Cundall 
Managing Contractor: Hindmarsh 
Department for Transport, Energy and Infrastructure: Project Risk Management 
Laboratory Specialists: RFD 
Cost Manager: Rider Levett Bucknall 
Area: ​25,000 m² 
Year: 2013 
Client: ​South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute 
Photo: Peter Fisher, Michelle Burfield

THE WENLING INTIME 5 STAR HOTEL BY WOODS BAGOT

The Wenling Intime 5 Star Hotel and Serviced Apartments, designed by Woods Bagot, are positioned between two water ways, with extensive views of the wetlands and mountains in the region. It will become an active destination to support the local culture and economy for the coastal city of Wenling in the municipal region of Taizhou, China.

The project balances the prerequisite delivery of an iconic tall tower on a peninsula with sensitive ecological and waterfront place-making. The design prioritizes pedestrian and water taxi connections to and around the site and establishes a sequence of public waterfront experiences on ground level and exclusive elevated terraces for residents and hotel guests above the ballroom.

A number of ‘highlights’ designed to ensure the ultimate guest experience include the creation of a southern waterfront dining experience and pedestrian promenade, multi-story atrium spaces in both the tall tower and podium, roof-top gardens, as well as a feature club and observation deck occupying the highest levels of the tall tower.

The project strives to respond to its adjacency to water by creating a holistic approach to water management. Additional sustainability strategies include the incorporation of a large vegetated roof atop the podium as well as harnessing the sun’s energy by integrating solar hot water and pv systems.

MIXED USE LUXURY DEVELOPMENT BY WOODS BAGOT

This mixed use development designed by WoodsBagot takes inspiration from the precision of engineering and design that goes into some of the most luxurious and elegant sports cars.

Wanda Kunming is to be located in the heart of the Beijing CBD and will revolutionise the concept of the mixed use development. The design is based on the concept of luxury automobile designers and their ability to subtly locate character or ‘bone lines’ to provide refinement in their vehicle designs.

Therefore in creating this concept Woods Bagothas created a design that uses unique organic sweeps in order to create a distinctive facade that unifies the mass elements of the complex.

This truly modern complex will contain state of the art office towers, retail space, an inner city park as well as a full furnished shopping mall.

GPT GROUP HEADQUARTERS BY WOODS BAGOT WINS LIVEABLE OFFICE AWARD

The award, organised by Herman Miller, was presented as part of Reach, a two day celebration of design and innovation, held at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. The awards aim to celebrate the best in workplace innovation, highlighting the achievements of organisations and designers. “Design of the office used to revolve around how to accommodate technology and power rather than the user. With almost ubiquitous access to wireless data and diminishing sizes of devices, the shift now applies to design workspaces around driving collaboration and promoting user’s postural changes. The discipline of workspace design has entered of new phase.”

Spurred by a vision to design a workplace that is more business lounge than office, the new working environment allows for business growth and optimises performance by providing task orientated wireless and technologically enabled spaces allowing employees to utilise a range of settings, from concentrated private spaces to collaborative and project specific settings, coupled with a broad range of meeting rooms.

Key to activating the workplace was creating a three dimensional stack which would promote cross ‘group’ communication. Two stairs have been introduced into the floorplate at the north-east and south-east facades. One as part of the client experience to create a multi-layered meeting tree, and the other as part of the collaborative work zone: the creative link.

The stairs are integral to the design as they promote interaction and allow employees the feeling of being part of ‘their community’ but also linked to the wider organisation. This connection is enhanced by the use of technology, allowing the GPT ‘home base’ to link to other satellite sites and a key component of their business: the shopping centres.

The design responds to cues in the building, by expressing existing forms and materials, and exposing the building’s concrete structure. The front of house pod forms are extruded from the base building Nervi structure, and the sinuous language of the stair references forms created within Seidler buildings.

This language is extended throughout the fitout, and reveals in the grid ceiling, with flowing forms being juxtaposed against the rigid geometry of the floorplate. True to GPT’s core values is a strong interface with community and a commitment to the environment. Components from the former fitout were reused and recast into the new include; recycled timber joinery, reclaimed from the dark timber panelling; re-gassed chairs; and a stripped-back ceiling revealing the original, Seidler concrete ribbing.

Location: Sydney, Austrialia

Architect:WoodsBagot

Sustainability: Designed to achieve 6 Star Green Star 

Area: 3,700 m2 

Year: 2011 

Client: The GPT Group

UWA BUSINESS SCHOOL BY WOODS BAGOT

University of Western Australia's new world-class 10,000 m2 Business School makes a major contribution to the southern entrance of the Crawley Campus and the overall architectural landscape of Western Australia’s oldest university. It is a fusion of the University’s specific requirements and the latest education pedagogy and workplace design concepts.

Woods Bagot has undertaken a rigorous consultative approach throughout the design process which has resulted in opportunities for innovation and added value. With the trend in tertiary education for a dramatic shift in the pedagogical framework for learning, the University of Western Australia required a high level of flexibility in the new building which features:

• Flexibility in the configuration of spaces and the patterns of their arrangement and use
• Group spaces facilitating collaborative problem solving project based work
• Breakout spaces adjacent to more formal learning areas where the process can be extended in a less formal and social mode

• Wireless networks to facilitate database access as and when required
• Data projection capabilities to all walls to optimise the flexibility in use of a space and ease of transformation of the space
• Food and drink to enable seamless process to learning and extended hours of activity 
• Help desks to enable ready access to support
• Laboratories which take on more of the characteristics of studio environments

• Study carrels and syndicate rooms which complete the range from extraverted/social work to introverted/private study and reflection
• Service Centres (printing, scanning, photocopying etc.) Rigorous education specific space auditing combined with the consultative process resulted in a 10% saving in space from the original brief.

 

These savings were reinvested in a number of ways, such as: the creation of a new collaborative and collegiate workplace model for academics, – new learning environments such as collaborative social spaces and breakout spaces and – chilled beam climate control The building is also orientated so as to optimise natural heating and cooling throughout the year and the form of the building allows for the maximum penetration of natural light.

This is combined with an intelligent daylight compensation lighting system. The UWA Business School site is located at the southern end of the campus, the opposite end to the sandstone Winthrop buildings which define the campus identity.

This provides the opportunity to announce a new era in the history of the University and a 21st century model for campus architecture. The architectural expression is derived from images associated with the history of the state’s economy. It is, after all, a business school and the business and economics of Western Australia are primarily founded on agriculture and the resource industry.

These primary industries have changed the landscape in the hinterland of Western Australia, and the images of that landscape form the architectural theming for the building. Aerial photographs of the Goldfields, Wheatbelt, Pilbara, Kimberley and Southwest Saltlakes provided the imagery that the building textures were derived from.

The most important architectural expressions are located around the key learning environments or knowledge cores - the reason for the building’s existence such as the lecture theatres and case study rooms.

 

 
Location: Perth, Australia

Architects: Woods Bagot

Project Team: Ross Donaldson, Michael Michelides, Georgia Singleton, John Liddiard, Kae Woei Lim, Cian Davis, Zenifa Bunic, Sandy Franco

Area: 10,000 sqm

Cost: $ 50 Mil.

Year: 2009

Photographs: Adrian Lambert, Acorn Photo Agency