Northrop

Located within Trinity College’s Parkville campus Victoria, the project was designed to provide a modern response to community focused student accommodation within a historic 19th century setting. It offers a hundred new student beds with associated common spaces and areas for the student community.

 

Northrop provided services throughout all phases of the project, from concept design, through to completion with the builder on a design and construct basis. The project consists of a five-storey residential accommodation building with a services basement and a separate two storey junior common room, providing a separate facility for students to connect, set within the grounds of the college.

 

The structural design for the building incorporated a mixture of reinforced and post tensioned concrete, to provide an efficient concrete frame structure that had minimal impact on the proposed architectural design, whilst accommodating the need for larger open spaces with the communal areas at the ground floor.

 

The key feature of the accommodation building is the folded façade that provides a contemporary mix of glass, steel and brickwork, within the backdrop of the historical stone buildings. This required a considered structural approach to the façade support system to accommodate the differing properties of the façade elements and providing appropriate structural support. Northrop developed a repetitive, simplified steel frame system that resulted in a clean window support combined with providing the required stability to the brickwork façade. This also required careful consideration to how the frames could be articulated to aid installation and accommodate the differential movement of the steel, glass, masonry and concrete frame behind.

 

The sunken ground floor common area provides a large open space for students to meet and study, with generous connection to the adjacent landscaped areas. Large window and door opening have been accommodated by large structural steel frames that support the brickwork over, whilst providing integrated custom structural steel window shrouds and integrated awnings.

 

The junior common room provides a space where students can gather socially in a purpose-built facility. A systemised approach of alternating steel plate frames provided the restraint to the direct fixed glazing as well as acting as the vertical and horizontal support to large portions of the roof and floor structures. A key focus for this building was on ensuring that the detailing accommodated the differential movement between the concrete floors, timber framing, glass and large steel plate sections.

 

Following the completion of the project in late 2020, the project received the Top Honour for Residential Architecture – Multiple Housing at the 2021 Australian Institute of Architects VIC Chapter Awards.