MULTIPLEX has completed Victoria’s largest mass timber project with La Trobe University’s newest student accommodation.
Located at La Trobe University’s Bundoora campus, this now completed project features a structure that almost entirely utilised cross-laminated timber (CLT), which is a non-toxic, fire-resistant, renewable resource with a long-life cycle, as well as glulam beams and columns.
Designed by Jackson Clements Burrows Architects, the student accommodation project boasts 624 beds across two six-storey buildings. The two buildings, the first student accommodation sites built on this campus since the 1970s, are connected through shared amenities and landscaping.
“We are thrilled to complete this innovative student accommodation for La Trobe University and pave the way for future sustainable design and construction. It’s wonderful to see La Trobe encourage sustainability on its campus and we are proud to deliver the largest new development in Victoria using mass timber,” said Graham Cottam, regional managing director of Multiplex.
Throughout construction, 1,223 were employed on-site, while over 2,700 individual mass timber elements were utilised.
The use of CLT to this extent, could potentially cut the embodied carbon in the building by 50%, when compared to a likewise concrete structure.
The project has achieved a 5 Star Green Star design rating and is targeting a 5 Star Green Star as-built rating, with the projects modular façade’s thermal envelop working to drastically improve energy efficiency.
Throughout construction, Multiplex had to work within tight scheduling, and utilise pod bathrooms to reduce disruption to the campus and ensure the fastest possible delivery of the project.
Multiplex most recently has been appointed to deliver Cbus Propety’s $300 million office tower in the Adelaide CBD.
While in January the group joined Ramsay Health Care in delivering the $256.7 million development of the Joondalup Health Campus.