The Australian Plantbank is located in the Mount Annan Botanical Gardens and was commissioned by the Royal Botanical Gardens & Domain Trust. This prestigious and modern facility will enable collection, storage and research on seeds and live tissue specimens of all plant species in Australia.
The architectural design of the building required strict tolerances of all architectural defined lines; in particular the building is essentially founded on surrounding concrete walls with a Class 2C specification. The design intent for these walls was to simulate earth moving out of the ground to the building. The walls consist of many oblique and acute angles with intricate alignment and joint requirements that substantially increase the degree of difficulty in achieving good quality concrete.
To achieve this quality and accuracy of these walls required precise set out, high quality formwork and concrete placement techniques to ensure the product met the client’s requirements.
Further to the external concrete requirements, the internal building involved the installation of approximately 2,000 square metres of honed concrete ground slabs. The procedures and methods developed to manage the quality of the finish was the key to the successful product provided.
The exceptionally high standard of the finished concrete in the Australian Plantbank achieved by Hansen Yuncken makes this building a worthy winner in the Best Use of Concrete.