Precast facades are increasingly being used in residential construction. The Regency development covers a block bounded by Help, Orchard, Endeavour and Anderson Streets in Chatswood and consists of 565 apartments in two towers, a leisure centre, retail areas and parking.

The DA design was carried out by DEM Architects. When Grocon was awarded the job they employed Dimension 5 Design to design develop and document the project.

Project Architect, Rob Doak of Dimension 5 Design affirms that the use of precast gave an excellent result in achieving design intent. Precast concrete cladding allowed him to achieve articulation of the facade with vertical and horizontal grooves while maximising the window size to satisfy client requirements.

Large areas, which were originally intended to be painted CFC or masonry, were changed to precast to attain uniformity of appearance and because the excellent relationship between the builder, the architect and Hanson allowed such changes without disruption.

The facade is generally grit-blasted precast concrete involving over 800 panels and 7,600 square metres of face area. Polished reconstructed granite panels were supplied around the podium. A major contributor to productivity was the fixing of the windows within Hanson's yard. Simple fixing details and an efficient erection crew allowed the panels to be erected very quickly. The fixing system used ensured that there was no intrusion of haunches into the floor space.

Sound insulation is very important in residential buildings and the details developed to contain sound transmission between floors at the façade and from the adjacent railway line easily achieved the required standard. Effective waterproofing was achieved using an open drained joint system with rear seal.

Rob Doak is a firm believer in building architectural finishes permanently into the precast facade rather than having them applied later in the project when cost pressures may have a detrimental effect on external finishes. The precast panels used on the Regency have integral sandstone finish produced by grit-blasting a reconstructed stone concrete. The concrete contained off-white cement and 0.25% Flamingo oxide which complement the coarse and fine aggregates to achieve the buff coloured appearance.

Regency is an excellent example of the use of precast concrete to achieve economy and speed while satisfying architectural requirements.

Contact Details

To discuss whether we can assist you contact our estimating manager.

Phone: 02 9627 2666

Fax: 02 9627 5161

Email: precast@hanson.biz