[COM] SAHMRI | $200m

[cruel_world00]

I ride past this puppy quite a bit from the Morphett Street Bridge and the other day touristy looking people were taking photos. Imagine that. A modern building in being photo bait. You wouldn't read about it.

Jewel in the west end crown.

[H1ghlife]

First Time Poster....

WIsh i was in Adelaide to be able to admire this building in person on more than a once per year basis...jealous of the rest of ya...

My buddy works at the SAHMRI site and he took these photos...they're from a week or so ago.

[crawf]

Awesome shots, thanks for posting them

[zippySA]

H1life - what does your buddy reckon about it finishing by end of this year? Seems like a lot of works to go yet if they still erecting facade.....

[RiseHigh]

There are some great shots you could get if you work in this building like the centre foyer area near the glass lifts. If you stand on level nine and look down the centre foyer it looks very impressive, or stand on level 3 and look up the centre it's amazing how the facade supports itself. Those photos are pretty boring compared to what's in this building.

[H1ghlife]

There are some great shots you could get if you work in this building like the centre foyer area near the glass lifts. If you stand on level nine and look down the centre foyer it looks very impressive, or stand on level 3 and look up the centre it's amazing how the facade supports itself. Those photos are pretty boring compared to what's in this building.

I agree and maybe i can get him to take some from those angles, but since i don't currently live there and have only requested some unspecific shots, then this is the result. On a side note, my mate works specifically on welding the interior pieces of the steel facade together, so he wanted to show off some of his work...

[bva]

Bit harsh thing to say for a first time poster. Thanks for the interior shots.

[Waewick]

thanks for the photos.....boring or otherwise

[Vee]

Love this latest item (incl podcast) from InDaily.
Gavin Kain reveals design insights on the SAHMRI building in this interview by John Byleveld on Plan Radio.
Longish article but well worth a read.

Why the fuss about SAHMRI’s pinecone?
InDaily

Affectionately termed the pinecone or blue tongue (after the lizard), the SA Health and Medical Research Institute’s elegantly poised shingleback is already being heralded as a “game-changer” for South Australia.

But what’s so intriguing about this latest addition to North Terrace?

Interview with Gavin Kain...
As a designer, the excitement for me lies predominately in the confidence that a project like this brings to the local architecture and design community. The team at architecture firm Woods Bagot, in collaboration with builders Hindmarsh , have delivered far more than just a highly tuned facility in which research will be conducted; the SAHMRI building is an expression of serious design intelligence and construction capability, and its importance to Adelaide cannot be overstated.

The $200 million federally funded bio-research facility forges new ground on almost every front of design and construction.

In an interview with Radio Adelaide’s The Plan (listen to the podcast at the end of this article), Gavin Kain from Woods Bagot notes that the building may appear as pre-conceived, formal sculpting by the architects, but this not the case.

“We really had no concept of what the building was going to look like prior to starting."

His team had to address the “new (Royal Adelaide) hospital to the west, with a shared plaza forecourt; clearly it had to address North Terrace; and clearly it had to address the views to the north, to Adelaide Oval and the Parklands – which ultimately led to the scenario that this building couldn’t have a back”.

That constraint ended up being the catalyst for the building’s final form. Not being able to have a back created an opportunity for the architects to envelop the building in a continuous façade.

The skin that adorns this giant shingleback is also testament to the pursuit of optimal performance. The structure has a series of triangular glazed and fritted window units in a diagonal grid pattern. Each window is shaded with a different sized hood, with the hood depth based on the window’s position relative to that of the sun. Woods Bagot carried out extensive solar modelling of the skin with internationally renowned consultants Atelier 10 to optimise passive solar performance.

From the outside of the building, the skin structure may appear to block out some of the views. Surprisingly, this is not the case, as the windows are so large and continuous that you don’t seem to notice the structural elements at all. The vistas on the upper levels looking out over the city are stunning.

The orientation of the building also presents a clever remedy to that old Adelaide planning dilemma – how to maintain a North Terrace address while not turning one’s back on the river. SAHMRI is slightly rotated off the Adelaide city grid, creating a forecourt address to the south that is a shared plaza with the new Royal Adelaide Hospital; to the north, the building aligns with river and the re-developed Adelaide Oval.

The traditional model for research facilities features a very modest public interface, with the researchers buried deep in highly controlled recesses away from the public gaze. Woods Bagot inverts this model, elevating the research and researcher to an inspired new public platform.

“One of the key concepts with the client was to reveal, or demystify, the research and inspire young people to understand what was going on."

Inside the building, mirrored double atrium spaces emphasise a vertically integrated open plan – think vast voids that run up the entire height of either side of the building. The extensive visual connections throughout upper levels are more like that of a modern shopping mall than a research facility. Even the central lifts are fitted with glazed glass to maintain transparency.

The list of design triumphs for SAHMRI is long and is still evolving as the project speeds toward completion before the end of the year.

The building was designed to have just six flower columns on the ground supporting its entire weight – designed to lend the whole structure a sense of levitation. The entire weight of the building is channeled through diagonal columns on every level – up to 36 seperate columns on the top floor – which all slope down to two sets of three columns on the ground. Quite phenomenal.

For our state, SAHMRI is a landmark investment in design intelligence. We haven’t done a building like this before – one shaped by its needs and uses, which the architect responded to, rather than the other way round. It’s a true watershed moment for architecture in this state.

I was lucky enough to get a tour of the building with Woods Bagot. Towards the end, as we looked out at the magnificent view north to Adelaide Oval, Kain commented on another not-too-distant future: “I look forward to when the Test match cricket is on at Adelaide – when the commentators pause and the camera pans around to see SAHMRI and all the cranes from the hospital and the Convention Centre … it’s changing the way the world sees Adelaide."

http://indaily.com.au/design/2013/09/16 ... -pinecone/

[RiseHigh]

There are some great shots you could get if you work in this building like the centre foyer area near the glass lifts. If you stand on level nine and look down the centre foyer it looks very impressive, or stand on level 3 and look up the centre it's amazing how the facade supports itself. Those photos are pretty boring compared to what's in this building.

I agree and maybe i can get him to take some from those angles, but since i don't currently live there and have only requested some unspecific shots, then this is the result. On a side note, my mate works specifically on welding the interior pieces of the steel facade together, so he wanted to show off some of his work...

Maybe I should stop criticizing and put some of my shots on here, ( my phone is full of great ones) but I tried and had problems and gave up, but I will try again. There are some great views off the roof of adelaide oval, the convention centre and the hospital next door.

[Briggzy_03]

New interior pics from their facebook page - link

[Patrick_27]

New interior pics from their facebook page - link

They are some excellent snaps! What a remarkably beautiful building! Cost + time it took to construct, aside; this is a building the current government, contractors involved, and the people of this state can and should be proud of.

[Vee]

Channel 7 News report featured this segment "Exclusive look inside new Adelaide medical research institute"

The new South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI) is about to open its doors ...

The $200 million building is already turning the heads of those travelling on North Tce in Adelaide’s CBD.
The facade consists of more than 14,000 windows and panels – most with sunshades to optimise light and thermal efficiency.
...
A total of 600 local and international medical minds will be housed at the institute, where they will work in nine state of the art laboratories spread over ten floors.

“We’ll be doing clinical trials, we’ll be doing what we call population health studies where we’ll be looking at large amounts of data and working out better ways of delivering health in South Australia,” SAHMRI executive director Professor Steve Wesselingh said.

There are already plans for a second SAHMRI building, right next door to the new one. Once that gets the go-ahead, it will make the site one of the biggest health and research precincts in the southern hemisphere.

Among the gadgets in the new institute is a $20 million cyclotron - the first in the state - which creates radioisotopes used in cancer therapy and diagnosis.

The SAHMRI team will move into its new digs on December 20.

More, incl video.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/sa/a/19304282/ ... institute/

[Phantom]

Channel 7 News report featured this segment "Exclusive look inside new Adelaide medical research institute"

More, incl video.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/sa/a/19304282/ ... institute/

Yes! This is looking brilliant! This whole precinct could create another one of those postcard shots for Adelaide, and a building this awesome can't hinder the city!

My only piece of criticism is with the SAHMRI 2 building... I really do wish that it doesn't end out looking like an afterthought. If they can make it look either as fantastic or as unique as the first one, I think that would be brilliant!

[Adelarch]

My only piece of criticism is with the SAHMRI 2 building... I really do wish that it doesn't end out looking like an afterthought. If they can make it look either as fantastic or as unique as the first one, I think that would be brilliant!

Totally agree. In fact in some ways if SAHMRI 2 and the other research buildings proposed never saw the light of day I wouldn't be too cut up - a building as unique and striking as this deserves buffer space around it for full effect. A well thought out, contemporary landscape design channelling views to it would be a better complement than a clutter of competing architectural forms hiding it and compromising it's effect IMO.