Project
Margaret Court Arena was a joint venture between NH Architecture and Populous – commissioned by Major Projects Victoria.
The $150M updated arena is now a world class venue with a new facade, increased crowd capacity to 7500, a retractable roof and a fully enclosed concourse area. This new development is part of stage one in the Melbourne Park Redevelopment which was completed in time for the 2015 Australian Open.
With the aim to be the first Australian sports venue to achieve a LEED construction ‘gold’ rating, both local and sustainable timbers were to be required which was no easy feat given the size of this project.
The ASH operation in Heyfield, produced and supplied SUPASPAN for the 6.6m glue laminated timber requirements which are the stand out feature, circling around the internal walkways. They bring a sense of warmth to an otherwise concrete building but also help reduce the buildings embodied energy due to stored carbon as opposed to materials that would require the burning of fossil fuels to create. Working closely with Vos Constructions, the Victorian Governments Procurement team and Lend Lease, ASH were able to produce the enormous timber requirements within 3 days. A task the builders had been told would not be possible in Australia.
The roof of Margaret Court has been said topay homage to a typical suburban roof line where Margaret Court can now be seen blending in to the terracotta roofed homes in residential Richmond. Fixed to the eaves below are GoodWood Victorian ash battens, finger jointed into set lengths for ease of installation. ASH often collaborate with Britton Timbers on projects where PEFC certified Victorian ash is specified as both parties are accredited to PEFC Chain of Custody and Britton Timbers are able to further add value by pre-coating each board, as they did with this project, with 3 coats of a WOCA stain.
For more information about the Margaret Court Arena design, refer to NH Architecture
Click the following link to learn more about the ASH structural timber range
Click the following link to learn more about the GoodWood range