Pre-finished timber decking ensures longevity at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre In specifying the finish for a decked courtyard at the centre of the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre expansion, NH Architecture and Woods Bagot sele
The Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC) precinct holds its own against other examples of this type of public architecture on a global scale.
It’s a bustling microcosm of the city of Melbourne and captures the energy of a place regarded for positive cosmopolitan vibes, international commerce and progressive thinking. In renovating their original design and expanding the project, NH Architecture and Woods Bagot have not only improved the offering, they’ve also made it far more engaging.
With stage two now complete, the precinct is equivalent in size to three and a half MCGs and its centrepiece is a state-of-theart Exhibition Hall. Ambitious scale aside, the expansion’s most resounding feature is the one-thousand-square-metre timber deck courtyard in the central hub. It’s a meeting point, gathering spot and breakout zone, and is also used as a function space, equipped to accommodate outdoor events with capacity for eight hundred people. This area works as hard as the precinct’s interiors, if not more so, because it’s exposed to the elements. And for the architects, the challenge was how to best preserve the decking to ensure longevity and low maintenance.
In this respect, they worked closely with landscape architecture practice Aspect Studios, who specified Intergrain TSS Mould Preventer followed by Intergrain UltraDeck decking oil with added UltraGrip for slip resistance. As Woods Bagot principal and project director Andy Gentry explains, “The courtyard needed to be heavily trafficked yet aesthetically pleasing and this product enhances the material’s inherent qualities, highlighting its natural grain and texture, which in turn adds to the architectural dynamism of the precinct.”
The decking oil is a factory-applied coating and so affords a greater level of control over the outcome. For a project like the MCEC, which has evolved over a considerable period of time, the benefits of this process can’t be underestimated, especially for an exterior application. Not only does the timber arrive on site
protected against exposure that can potentially lead to splitting, swelling or cupping, its finish is also even and therefore consistent with any factoryapplied timber finishes already in use.
Specifying pre-finished timber also plays an important part in keeping such a large project on schedule. The timber does not require additional coating after arriving on site, streamlining the installation process. Gentry explains, “We had a rigid eighteenmonth construction program, and using a timber that has been pre-finished helped to keep the project on track.”
Certainly, the architects’ preference was for a high-performance product that would avert the risk of defects and rectification periods, and provide durability in the long term. This is a key advantage of pre-finished timber, which ensures all surfaces of the timber are coated, thereby providing greater protection over the project’s lifespan. As NH Architecture principal Adrian Costa explains, “Applying the coating in the factory covers all of the timber’s surfaces, including the underside, and removes any on-site issues of painting over fixtures or splashing of adjacent surfaces.”
Every single component of the MCEC’s expansion has been carefully considered and therein lies the project’s ultimate design success.
Architects NH Architecture and Woods Bagot;
NH Architecture project team Hamish Lyon, Astrid Jenkin,
Nick Hubicki, Adrian Costa, Natasha Nassour, Mieke Vinju, Victor Wong, Lucy Carruthers; Woods Bagot project team
Nik Karalis, Andy Gentry, Kate Frear, Mindy Chong, Ryvan Lim, Tristan Da Roza, David Zito, Nirvan Basnet, Sue Al-Azzawi; Project manager Plenary Group; Structural engineers WSP (expansion), Irwinconsult (carpark and hotel); Services and fire engineer, specialist lighting, ESD and vertical transportation consultant WSP; Hydraulic consultant C. R. Knight and Associates; Traffic engineer GTA Consultants; Acoustic and theatre consultant Marshall Day Acoustics; Signage consultant Buro North; Facade engineer Arup; Landscape consultant Aspect Studios; AV/ICT consultant CHW Consulting; Building surveyor PLP Building Surveyors and Consultants; DDA consultant Architecture and Access; Town planner Urbis; Timber supplier Precise Timber Innovations