Prior to 2010, the Charles Sturt University (CSU) campus in Orange, New South Wales, Australia was nothing more than your run-of-the-mill “agricultural college campus.” In 2007, the university received funding from the commonwealth government for a regional school of dentistry and health sciences. With the funds, two teaching and medical facilities were scheduled to be designed and built by mid-2009. Designers at Brewster Hjorth Architects got to work on the project, taking the pre-existing campus layout and upgrading it to include new facilities and recalibrate the campus’ center. A new central pedestrian path was created in order to cover the campus’ newest additions.
Sustainability was made a priority by the university, as it was required that these new facilities were designed to achieve a five-star Green Star rating. Established by Australia’s Green Building Council in 2003, this certification system is Australia’s method of determining the quality of a sustainable building’s design, operation, and construction. In order to achieve the university’s goals, architects worked closely with services engineers to draw up a design that best fit the project’s needs.
Energy efficiency is key in terms of designing a sustainable building, and architects understood that a material that would properly manage and insulate the heat within a building was critical to fulfilling the university’s needs. For Charles Sturt University, Fairview’s Ceramapanel, a fiber cement material finished with A&I Coatings’ Vitreflon, was used as the cladding on the campus Dental and Oral Health Clinic.
Regarding sustainability requirements, the hyper-durability and color and gloss retention abilities of FEVE-based coatings allow surfaces to experience little to no chalking or fading caused by UV radiation, salt, and water. Additionally, the Lumiflon FEVE resin technology used in Vitreflon eliminates the need for frequent recoats, thus extending the coatings’ life expectancy and reducing life-cycle costs.
Photos courtesy of CSU
Categories Architecture