Northrop

As part of the University of Newcastle's long-term vision to grow, develop knowledge and be a driver of innovative regional economy, the Honeysuckle City Campus development was the core component of this vision. Northrop were engaged to provide structural and specialist timber engineering services for this landmark project. 

The new campus contains four levels of exposed timber, with each floor offering flexible teaching spaces.  Timber has been well and truly championed with the scale of mass timber providing a sense of place for the project with its location within the harbourside precinct. Occupant wellness is also addressed with evidence-based studies determining that timber, when applied to a building’s internal spaces, contributes to stress reduction in students.

With engineering challenges unique to Newcastle such as mine subsidence and poor ground conditions, the use of timber for this project ticked all the boxes. The project was built from post and beam construction - glulam columns and beams, with CLT slabs. The most impressive element of the building was the CLT stairs spanning nearly 8m. These stairs were simply lifted into place which was consistent with the offsite fabrication theme. Majority of the lift cores and fire stairs were also precast panels creating a build similar to that of a jigsaw.

This impressive building represents new standards in education, innovation, enterprise and environmentally-sustainable infrastructure for the Newcastle region.

What our client had to say about us: 

“Hansen Yuncken thoroughly enjoyed working with Ali Habibi and the Northrop team on the Q-building project. We have an established relationship with Northrop completing many projects in the region with them, but it was a new experience to work with their mass timber designers. The approach of the mass timber team was akin to that of their wider business. Fully engaged in the project, they were very proactive and effective in rapidly completing the design. They were hands-on in resolving design and coordination issues and assisting us in managing the shop drawing / fabrication model process with our fabricator. Of significant note was Ali’s teams understanding of certification and fire engineering requirements which were extremely beneficial in closing out the Fire Engineering Report and other authority requirements for a project such as this one. I look forward to delivering similar projects in the near future together with Northrop."

Jonathan Russell - Project Manager | Hansen Yuncken

All project images via Murray McKean