Parkville Apartments Stage 5

DESCRIPTION

The Green is a chic five storey apartment development in Parkville. Facing the village oval the building contains a total of 57 high quality one, two and three bedroom apartments.

The project was designed by SJB Architects with engineering by IrwinConsult. The Green combines three distinctive architectural forms which surround a central landscaped courtyard creating a striking visual presence. The timber framed structure included cassette floor frames topped with two laers of matrix engineered reinforced mineral board flooring panels.

The speed of construction with cassette floor construction was confirmed by David Graham, Construction Director for Australand; “In late 2012 an initiative [was undertaken] to create cassette flooring for medium density apartments. On Tuesday 25 June 2013, the first cassette was lifted into position and within 48 hrs, 850m2 of structural flooring had been successfully installed”.

This project was the first five-storey, all-timber residential building in Victoria and broke new ground in cost efficiency and speed of construction. The use of prefabricated cassette floors was an innovation with enormous potential for future mid-rise construction. It debunks much of the anti-timber rhetoric amongst builders.

The proof of timber’s long-term value was demonstrated in 2024 interviews with Melbourne Building Management – the managers for the ten years since the building’s completion and handover. They reported better performance than similar concrete frame buildings they manage, with no issues whatsoever with the timber structure. In fact, their on-site maintenance manager had no idea that the building had a timber frame.

ROLE

Role: Project Management (consulting)

Builder: Australand (now Frasers Property Group)