Project: Curtin University – Team 6
Submission Extract: This project explores the potential of combining offsite manufactured solutions with adapted existing structures to deliver a mixed-use development that improveslong-term asset performance. The proposed stackable modular system is merged with an existing brown-field warehouse structure to achieve a design that celebrates the heritage of the site whilst creating a development that is affordable, adaptable, and transportable. T he concept acknowledges the clear benefits of design for manufacture and assembly (DfMA), with a prefabricated modular system that works alongside several additional prefabricated components to achieve a development that can be disassembled piece by piece. The team employed a hybrid steel and timber structural system for the project, which combines a stronger steel framework with in-fill timber CLT panels that allow for a simpler design with minimal bracing requirements. Steel-timber composites increase efficiency of moving, lifting and placing modules and can significantly increase speed of construction. The modular apartments further focus on effective layouts that allow for ease of vertical expansion and stacking flexibility to ensure future developments can meet any site restrictions.Overall, the project pulls away from the classic compact building mass and achieves a prefabricated development that supports circular economy, passive design, everyday engagement, and pleasant environments.
