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UTAS Inveresk Residences

This 120-apartment student residence is bold – both aesthetically and in the innovative prefabricated, modular, lightweight timber technology of its construction. Angular roof forms, corrugated iron and Zincalume^®cladding reference its location in Launceston’s Inveresk Railway Workshops heritage precinct. Raw timber screens evoke the delicate river foliage of the flood-prone North Esk River adjacent to the south. Raised above flood level, two three-story parallel apartment wings define and overlook screened and greened social courtyards, capture outlooks to Inveresk and the city, and achieve optimal solar orientation. A diagonal desire line delivers pedestrians and cyclists through and to the site. A grand-scale entry portal punctuates and frames the main arrival point. Common rooms and the circulation core intersect and link facades and residential wings. The design promotes opportunities for interpersonal interaction and learning in the globalised information age, enhancing the student experience, sense of community, identity, safety and security. Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD) principles achieve user comfort, a healthy environment, energy and resource efficiencies, and cost savings. The project construction technology combined prefabricated, lightweight timber framing with structural cross laminated timber. Modular apartments were assembled in a nearby warehouse, transported the short distance to site and craned into position achieving multiple procurement advantages.

Architect

Morrison & Breytenbach Architects with Circa Morris-Nunn Architects

Contractors

Hutchinson Builders

Consultants

Structural engineer – Aldanmark Consulting Engineers

Civil consultant – Aldanmark Consulting Engineers

Hydraulic consultant – Engineering Services Tasmania

Services consultant – Engineering Services Tasmania

Fire consultant – Red Fire

Building surveyor – Lee Tyers Building Surveyors

Quantity surveyor – Exsto Management

Landscape consultant – Lindsay Campbell Landscape Design

Acoustic consultant – VIPAC Engineers & Scientists

Timber consultant – Centre for Sustainable Architecture with Wood

ESD consultant – Morrison & Breytenbach Architects

Heritage consultant – Birrelli art + design + architecture

Photographer

James Morrison and Thomas Ryan

People’s Choice Prize

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