The new Parliament House Annex Building provides a legacy to the original Victorian Parliament House building, built in stages from 1856.
The new annex features an internal sunken courtyard and low-profile structure, creating a low impact on the surrounding gardens and numerous heritage trees, while maintaining its iconic and important views across to St Patrick’s Cathedral. A detailed and coordinated approach was required to fit all services and structures into the tight, floor to floor height for each accommodation space.
One of the key design features was also to create and maintain sustainable solutions across the build. Designed to a 5 Star Green Star Design and As Built and Interiors equivalency, the building meets sustainability objectives and manages amenity within the tight site by being earth beamed and incorporating a fully accessible intensive green roof which links to the surrounding gardens.
Cooling and heating is provided by a unique geo-exchange system comprising of a network of 100 m deep boreholes, allowing all equipment to be concealed within the building shell and eliminating the need for a gas supply for heating, while offering excellent operating efficiencies. The ventilation system also takes benefit from the semi-underground location by utilisation of a labyrinth system to pre-cool fresh air and provide passive cooling.
Structurally, the use of BubbleDeck precast concrete flooring has enabled lighter and thinner, yet stronger floor slabs along with reducing embodied energy in the structure.
