WALLI NG

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C L OC K WI S E F R OM T OP
Maitland Visitors Centre, NSW
Wyong Civic Centre, NSW
Mercedes Benz National Headquarters, VIC
Primo Smallgoods Head Ofce, NSW
Concrete Masonry
WALLI NG
The use of concrete masonry offers a number of
pragmatic benets, notably noise attenuation, thermal
mass and low maintenance. In this publication however,
we focus on design, and look at the integration of
concrete masonry in the schemes of seven architects.
In the use of the material, the projects variously explore
colour, mass, texture, form, context and metaphor.
Collectively they demonstrate the range and the
potential of today's concrete masonry.
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The Evan Burge Library and Education Centre divides
its primary functions on two levels. The ground oor
contains the education centre comprising a 175-seat
lecture theatre and teaching rooms, and the rst
oor houses the library of 30 000 books and 70
student carrels.
The building makes a simple rectangular footprint
and has straightforward rectilinear planning. The
form of the building adopts a linear pavilion model,
accentuated by the barrel vault of the rst oor
ceiling, the full-length clerestory and the masonry
covered way cum cloister.
Split-face cream concrete masonry blocks have been
used for the walls generally, with smooth-face cream
blocks framing the openings. Bates Smart Architects
have used the split-face blocks to lend a monumental,
collegiate appearance to the building's envelope.
The mass and texture of the material is brought into
sharp counterpoint with the smooth stick framed
glazed wall of the north elevation.
The cloister provides a grand verandah to shade the
west elevation, and where the concrete masonry wall
wraps around to the east, offers the occupants the
benets of thermal mass.
The building is a creditable addition to the university.
The masonry and its application by the architects sits
comfortably in the context of this established
college campus.
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Evan Burge Library
and Education Centre
A B S T R A C T
Year nished 1997
Location Trinity College, University of Melbourne,
Parkville, Victoria
Client Trinity College
Architect Bates Smart
Structural, mechanical, electrical and hydraulic engineer
Addicoat Hogarth Wilson
Landscape architect Chris Dance Design
Project manager Kimpton Yuille
Builder Salzer Construction Pty Ltd
Concrete masonry Pioneer Building Products
Total cost $2.35m
D E TA I L S
Floor area 1050 m
2
Number of oors Two
Blocks Southern White split-face
390 x 190 and 390 x 90: walls generally
Southern White polished face
390 x 190 x 190: opening surrounds
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In Melbourne's southeastern suburb of Mulgrave,
Mercedes Benz has recently established its new
national headquarters.
The car's qualities of comfort and reliability have
been the basis of the image for the new building.
The texture and colour of Boral's split-face concrete
masonry have engendered a warmth and solidity in
the building's public facade.
While the building has an imposing corporate
presence, it also addresses the public context by
creating something like a stage set that partially
envelopes the streetscape and contributes to its
setting.
As you turn into Lexia Place you rst encounter
Boral's Sandstone split-face masonry on the re-built
walls of an earlier building. The original brick walls,
damaged as a result of structural movement, were
stripped from the building and replaced with masonry
matching that of the new building.
The wall of this building merges with the masonry of
the new boundary wall. This then describes a
serpentine curve before reintegrating with the new
building, and ending its sweep in an imposing portal
at the foot of the cul-de-sac.
The wall is the primary architectural gesture made
evident in its continuity and mass (witness the
rustication of the masonry and the deep reveals of
openings). Other features of the building's design
arise from operations on the wall. At rst oor level
the wall is made to bulge making a sign for the
entry. The large cut outs are made to reveal the car
showroom, however the wall appears to stand apart
from the body of the building and continues its path
to the big portal.
The architects in association, Michael Dore with
Castles, Stephenson & Turner have grasped a nexus
between material and idea. The colour and texture
of the masonry has been well chosen to reify the
abstract.
Mercedes Benz
National
Headquarters
A B S T R A C T
Year nished 1997
Location Lexia Place, Mulgrave, Victoria
Client Mercedes Benz
Architect Michael Dore in association with
Castles, Stephenson and Turner
Structural and civil engineer Eldon C Smith & Partners
Electrical and mechanical engineer Adrian Newman & Associates
Hydraulic engineer Eldon C Smith & Partners
Landscape architect Rick Blake
Builder Hooker Cockram Ltd
Concrete masonry Boral
Total cost $6.2m
Cost breakdown $1350/m
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D E TA I L S
Floor area 4540 m
2
Number of oors Two
Blocks Boral Sandstone split-face
Boral Sandstone smooth-face
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From Hadrian's Pantheon of 124 AD to Aldo Rossi's
Elementary School of 1976: this project has its roots
in the Italian Classical line.
The project is primarily a formal composition with
no marked contrasts in colours or texture. Concrete
masonry, however, readily develops a patina as it
weathers, which will lend a subtlety to the monolithic
surface. Moreover the unit size of the concrete
masonry is well suited to this scale of institutional
building.
The building is not unlike a cloistered college in its
organization. It presents a formal public face to the
street by adopting a greater proportion of wall to
window, but opens onto the quadrangle with larger
windows and covered ways.
By adopting a familiar Australian vernacular of stick
construction (albeit steel sticks) and corrugated iron,
the integration of the covered ways makes a
marriage of the European and Australian.
In the tradition of the circular reading room, the
library occupies the drum on the corner, making a
hinge for the wings of the building.
This building occupies a labile territory between old
and new. The effect of the masonry, with its subtlety
of colour and texture, is somewhat like the sepia
toning of a recent photograph to prompt a double
take on the new.
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All Saints Catholic
Primary School
A B S T R A C T
Year nished 1998
Location Grand Boulevard, Seaford, South Australia
Client All Saints Catholic Primary School
Architect Tridente Architects
Structural and civil engineer CC&L Consultants
Electrical, mechanical, hydraulic and re services engineer
Caporaletti Consultants
Landscape architect Tridente Architects
Builder (nal stage) Kennett Pty Ltd
Concrete masonry Rocla
Total cost $2.4m
Cost breakdown $1000/m
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D E TA I L S
Floor area 2400 m
2
Number of oors Two
Blocks Rocla Seaford smooth-face
Sand-blasted cant: sills
The Maitland Visitors Centre and Heritage Centre
plays a central role in the promotion of Maitland as
an historic centre of New South Wales.
Sited in Ministers Park, the area is situated inside the
Maitland ood plain and has been subjected to a
number of signicant oods, the rst recorded in
1864. To symbolise the passing of these events into
local folklore, the scheme incorporates a ood pole
sculptural landscape comprising 16 recycled electricity
poles sculpted by artists from the University of
Newcastle Fine Art Department and of Maitland.
An awareness of the continuing risk of occasional
ooding has inuenced the design and the choice of
building materials, notably ceramic oor tiles and face
concrete block-work. Easy clean up and recommission
of the building will be possible, minimising the
operational down time.
Being bounded on all four sides by a road and rail
network the issue of noise reduction needed consid-
eration. Suters Architects made use of the sound
attenuating qualities of concrete masonry to mitigate
the impact of these noise sources.
Maitland
Visitors Centre
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Looking beyond the practical applications of concrete
masonry, Suters Architects have explored the
materials' textures as part of the representation of
their design theme: the 'layering of time'.
The public face of the building comprises trabeated
structures each side of a forecourt. One is intact, the
other infers the reconstructed ruin, with a steel frame
as a diagrammatic representation of the former
structure. A freestanding wall, braced with steelwork
and featuring an unglazed opening stands as a
ctional ruin now propped and unroofed for use as a
plaza. The split-face blocks produce a rustication at
the base of the walls, and the smooth-face blocks
above imply a partial reconstruction. This theme
continues into the interior of the main hall with face
blockwork, engaged pilasters and standing pillars.
Over this ruin is the broad canopy of the new roof,
making a clerestory as it rests on the reconstructed
walls. To complete this schema, the architects
sourced tessellated tiles from Duckeneld Park House
built in the 1850's and demolished in 1917. There
are over 9000 tiles laid to the original pattern as they
appeared in the courtyard of Duckeneld Park House.
Suters Architects have made good use of the physical
properties of split- and smooth-face concrete masonry
and its potential in design for thematic allusion.
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A B S T R A C T
Year nished 1997
Location Corner of High Street and New England
Highway, Maitland, NSW
Client Maitland City Council
Architect Suters Architects
Structural engineer Lindsay & Dynan
Mechanical,electrical and hydraulic engineer Marline Newcastle
Acoustic consultant Caleb Smith Consulting
Quantity surveyor Ian Speight & Associates
Landscape architect Ginkgo Landscaping
Displays designer Jonathan Pritchard, Australian Museum
Project manager Suters Architects
Builder D F McCloy
Concrete masonry Boral Besser
Total cost $638 170
Cost breakdown $1800/m
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D E TA I L S
Floor area 350 m
2
Number of oors One
Blocks Boral Sahara split-face
Boral Sahara smooth-face
90 mm and 190 mm high
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Wyong has grown rapidly over the past forty years.
During this period, the Shire Council's recurrent need
for more ofce space saw the ad hoc development of
its administration buildings, and the encroachment on
existing public spaces and areas with civic functions.
The result was a loss of the Shire's civic face.
The re-establishment of a public presence was
identied by Suters Architects as a primary issue in
the redevelopment of the new Wyong Civic Centre.
The addition of a major new building created an
atrium linking the new with the old. This provided a
new public focus to the interior of the building.
Outside, facing Hely Street, the architects
re-established the Shire's public face with an
imposing formal arrangement including a curvilinear
wall, which sweeps into the Centre's public entry.
The wall, of Boral's Sahara shot-blasted blocks, is an
integral part of the architect's formal and textural
considerations of the design. Being readily associated
with cut stone, the concrete masonry walls give the
project a solid plinth rooted rmly to the ground,
and present a contrast to the glass and metal
surfaces situated behind and above.
They have something of a medieval quality. Not
unlike the remaining ramparts of an old walled city,
they follow a serpentine path as if negotiating
difcult terrain; and present a heavy, raking surface
with just a few deeply recessed openings onto
terraces situated below ground.
The curved glazed walls of the administrative ofces
are separated from the masonry walls by a skylight
over the Council chambers. The ofces slip past the
wall and end in a cantilever. This again prompts
thoughts of the metaphor of an old wall as a
reconstructed ruin, behind which the new is built with
the engineering and materials of an industrial age.
As with the Maitland Visitor's Centre, Suters Architects
have made good use of the textures of the blockwork;
exploring both surface contrasts, and the rich ground
for other cultural and historical interpretations.
Wyong Civic Centre
A B S T R A C T
Year nished 1997
Location Hely Steet, Wyong, NSW
Client Wyong Shire Council
Architect Suters Architects
Structural and civil engineer Lindsay & Dynan
Electrical and mechanical engineer Norman Disney & Young
Hydraulic and re services engineer Integral Building Services
Landscape architect Suters Architects
Builder Wyong Shire Council
Concrete masonry Boral Besser
Total cost $9.2m
Cost breakdown $1050/m
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D E TA I L S
Floor area 6450 m
2
Number of oors Four
Floor to oor height 3.3 m to match adjoining existing
building
Blocks Boral Sahara split-face, 200 mm thick:
retaining walls
Boral Sahara smooth-face, 100 and200 mm thick
x 40 mm high: string courses and cappings
Boral Sahara shot-blasted, 100 mm thick:
curved walls
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In language, our sentences are governed by a set of
grammatical rules we collectively call syntax. These
rules make sense of our words and give them
meaning. In this project, Cheesman Architects have
used contrasting masonry to make a kind of syntax
for the building. Its various elements are drawn
together in a composition which suggests to us how
we are to read the building.
Situated south of Adelaide, the Seaford Ecumenical
Mission is a multi-denominational project involving
the Catholic Church, Church of Christ, Anglican
Church, Lutheran, and Uniting Church. The centre is
part of the Noarlunga regional health service, fostering
a holistic approach to health care by addressing the
needs of both body and soul.
It combines, under the one roof, a district community
health centre, a worship centre, and a multi-purpose
meeting space.
The rustication of contrasting split-face blocks and
parallel bands establishes both a base and a horizontal
reading to the lineal planning. The horizontal bands
are something like a musical stave for the sequence
of windows, which are elaborated with contrasting
masonry frames set proud of the wall. Consequently,
the windows are linked in a series, like musical notes,
rather than arbitrary holes in the wall.
The consulting rooms to the west are contained in a
building discrete in appearance. This together with
the patterned masonry that stands the building in
the vertical arrests the horizontal movement of the
eye and reorients the building towards the public
space to the south.
The tower is the signpost for the centre. With
alternating coloured layers it recalls its ancient prede-
cessor the Italian campanile.
The design also draws on a metaphor. The baptistery
and worship space are the sacred areas of the
building and feature expressive contrasting masonry.
The architects have made reference to the nearby
cliffs and Aboriginal ochre mines. This gurative
pattern is given form by the curved walls of the
building itself. Each concrete block has a groove
down the centre, which when laid in conventional
stretcher bond has the appearance of stack bond.
This project is a good example of the use of contrast-
ing masonry to characterise the form in the design.
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A B S T R A C T
Year nished 1996
Location Main Street, Seaford, South Australia
Client Seaford Ecumenical Mission
Architect Cheesman Architects
Structural and civil engineer Rust PPK
Electrical, mechanical and re services engineer Bestec
Hydraulics Allan Turner
Builder Minuzzo Construction Pty Ltd
Concrete masonry Rocla
Total cost $1.7m
Cost breakdown $1000/m
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D E TA I L S
Floor area 1650 m
2
Number of oors One
Blocks Rocla split-face, smooth-face and Ryltex nishes
Colours Driftwood, London Cream, Desert Sand,
Seaford, Eureka
Seaford Ecumenical
Mission
Concrete masonry is not a new material in light
industrial projects. In the past the unassuming grey
block was often used for the back-of-house
warehouse shell. Today, the new generation of
concrete masonry has become the public face of the
light industrial plant.
The Primo Smallgoods processing facility at Chullora
presents a fair and textured face to the Hume
Highway. Rocla split-face White blocks comprise the
body masonry, with string courses and window
surrounds of polished Ash Grey blocks. In this project
the contrasting colour has been used to string the
windows together and vary the wall surface to
mitigate the bulk of the building.
Primo Smallgoods
Head Ofce
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The new generation of concrete masonry puts a
range of colours and textures in the hands of the
designer. Together with the choice of bonds and
block sizes, there are rich possibilities to manipulate
the wall surface.
In this project for example, the polished grey masonry
lends tautness to the wall surface while the split-face
gives rise to an appearance of density and
compression. The smooth surface 'stretches' in a
horizontal layer while the weight of the rough
textured masonry bears down on it.
The perception of form is inuenced by subtle
variations in the wall surface. The diversity in concrete
masonry lends itself well, not only to the decorative,
but also to the formal issues in buildings design.
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A B S T R A C T
Year nished 1998
Location Hume Highway and Sherman Street,
Chullora, NSW
Client P&M Quality Smallgoods
Architect Peter Brooks Architects
Structural and civil engineer SCP Consultants
Electrical engineer E Shelmerdine & Partners
Mechanical engineer Lend Lease Process Services
Hydraulic and re services engineer Buckton Lysenko
Landscape architect Precinct Landscapes
Developer and builder Civil & Civic
Concrete masonry Rocla
Total cost $28m
Cost breakdown $1600/m
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D E TA I L S
Floor area 17 500 m
2
Number of oors Two storey ofce, single storey
processing area
Blocks Rocla White split-face 190 mm
Rocla White split-face 90 mm
Rocla Grey polished banding
with red feature stone
Rocla Grey polished face and top: sills
Rocla Grey polished two faces and top:
cappings
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ISBN 0 909407 39 8 August 1998 G80
Cement and Concrete Association of Australia
Locked Bag 2010 St Leonards NSW 1590
Concrete Masonry Association of Australia
PO Box 572 St Leonards NSW 1590
Telephone [02] 9903 7760
Facsimile [02] 9437 9703
For concrete masonry manufacturers contact CMAA
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WALLING
Concrete Masonry Innovation.
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