Buildcorp completes construction on $150-million NSW school in record time using high volume building prefabrication.

Buildcorp has successfully handed over the $150-million Santa Sophia Catholic College at The Gables in Sydney’s Box Hill. The Catholic Education Diocese of Paramatta’s new multi-storey prefabrication building, co-educational Kindergarten-to-Year-12 school will cater for up to 1,860 students and 130 full-time staff members.

The College was designed by BVN Architecture and delivered by Buildcorp in just 16 months on site due to extensive use of prefabricated building materials and a high level of quality control.

Buildcorp drew on its experience delivering large scale education facilities to develop the design during an Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) process with key partners including TSA (project managers), BVN (architects), Northrop (structural engineers), WT Partnership (QS) and Euroline (joinery).

The team worked closely to shape the prefabricated building design from the outset, using an offsite prefabrication strategy and building information modelling (BIM) to coordinate key areas. The solutions that were developed helped to achieve the architectural and pedagogical design aspirations and significantly reduce the on-site delivery time.

Tony Sukkar AM, managing director, Buildcorp, said: “The innovative building prefabrication strategy and game-changing partner collaboration enabled this project to be delivered swiftly with a very high quality outcome. The most effective off-site prefabrication solution was developed for a range of building materials to reduce construction time and increase quality control and safety.”

The team developed a design that offered four different façade types across 2,000 façade panels and 1,600 balustrade panels. This helped to realise the architect’s intent for curved, aluminium curtain walls that transition into balustrades and concrete decks. Full-scale façade mock-ups were created to validate the quality of the design and performance, and to ensure they were weatherproof.

The school’s prefabrication construction features a precast lift core, structural steel column and floor framing, and SlimDek permanent metal formwork. Curtain wall and window wall façade systems were also used, and a lightweight roof structure over the fitness centre.

The construction commenced on site in June 2020 with piling, followed by the ground floor slabs. The structural steel building frame was erected over a few months with SlimDek formwork laid within the structural steel frames. Post tensioned concrete slabs connected the steel buildings, and the curtain wall system was installed from cranes around the perimeter and, once completed, allowed for a seamless fitout of services, internal fitout and landscaping.

The building prefabrication solution ensured that 70 per cent of the joinery was made off-site by Euroline who sourced 100 per cent Australian-made materials for the joinery and interior panelling. Prototypes were created in the Euroline factory early in the process to enable the team to inspect samples before signing-off on full production.

Engaging with other key subcontractors early in the process enabled a more seamless process, with façade and steel subcontractors on board before the design was finalised. To manage supply chain capacity and risks, the structural steel prefabricated elements came from several supply chain locations within NSW.

Tony Sukkar AM said, “The construction team delivered the project throughout the pandemic and used Buildcorp’s industry-leading safety system to proactively manage the risk. This, along with adaptive programme management, helped to keep the project on track and minimise COVID-19 disruptions. As a result, Santa Sophia Catholic College opened its doors to students, teachers and the school community with much elation after Sydney’s lockdown restrictions were lifted.”

Santa Sophia Catholic College will be at the heart of a future Town Centre for The Gables community where developer Stockland has plans to deliver more than 2,000 homes after acquiring the masterplanned site from Celestino in 2020.

Tony Sukkar AM said: “The Catholic Education Diocese of Parramatta’s aspirational vision for a world-leading education hub has come together with Stockland’s vision for a vibrant Town Centre at The Gables with Santa Sophia Catholic College at its heart. By utilising Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) and effective collaboration we are proud to have realised the vision of all partners in the creation of this important community asset.”

For a virtual tour of the school, click here.

Source: https://builtoffsite.com.au/news/prefabrication-building/