10

Location: Slippy Downs,

Sunshine Coast,
Queensland

Owners: Sunshine Coast

University

Architect: Clare Design

Engineer: Taylor and

Associates

Builder: Hutchinson
Builders

Constuction Date: 1996

written by: Bernard Toogood | with: Greg Nolan | design: Peter Walker

University Clubhouse The Sunshine Coast - Queensland

The Sunshine Coast University Club, erected in 1996, is intended to be a casual and flexible
meeting space for staff, students and the wider community. The building is sited on flat, barren
ground between two sports fields. The brief required a building that could provide varied
functions such as change rooms, sporting club facilities and classrooms, but could also be
expanded in the future.

The brief also required an extremely short building program of 4 weeks for design and
documentation and 10 weeks for construction to an extremely tight budget (which was
achieved at $855.00 per square metre). The design outcome of this was to prefabricate much
of the structure and minimise the use of steel. Rather than the qualities of the building suffering
from these strict parameters, architect Lindsay Clare says that the building is “...very direct top right
interior of entry foyer / bar
and expressive”, distinguished by its quality of internal light, environmental performance, clever
and rigorous detailing and connection to the landscape. main image
the two pavilions of the
clubhouse on its featureless site
between two sports fields
all photos + drawings - courtesy
of the architects
•Description - The complex consists of two buildings separated by a covered walkway. The
main building contains a bar/ servery and is used as a meeting room, occasional classroom
and club facility. The smaller amenities building contains toilets and change rooms for the
various sporting clubs. The two functions were separated to allow each to expand unhindered
as future requirements change. To achieve the speed and economy of construction and the
need for future expansion required by the brief, the building is extruded from one simple but
thoughtfully designed and detailed section. This consistency of the section allowed for the
repetition of building elements and helped facilitate the prefabrication of much of the structure.
However the section also incorporated detailed considerations for the functional requirements
and environmental performance.

Responding to the requirement for clear viewing of sport and the flat treeless plain of the
landscape, the design developed as a horizontal transparent structure, with the roof as one
element, hovering over the timber platform of the floor. To create transparency in the perimeter
walls, the load bearing structure and bracing was pulled back to the centre of the building as
a colonnade of hardwood columns that support bracing in the form of longitudinal nail plate
trusses and plywood clad lateral trusses. The colonnade gives the space an almost
ecclesiastical quality, while the plywood clad lateral trusses break up the monotony of the
ceiling scape.

The forced north south orientation of the building exposed the long walls to the low angles of
morning and afternoon sun. Sun control and ventilation therefore became critical issues in
this non-airconditioned building. Cooling drafts are brought into the building through the
operable walls around its edge. Hot air rises up and is expelled out through louvred clerestory
widows above the colonnade structure. This sets up a stack effect so that air constantly
circulates through the building.

It was also important to achieve a balanced level of light inside the building. Too dark an
interior would have created a contrast with the strong outside light and the resulting glare
would have made viewing out onto the playing fields impossible. Light enters the building in a
controlled manner from the top through the clerestory windows, and through strip windows,
just in from the perimeter walls, where it is reflected off a light shelf and dissipated onto the
ceiling surfaces. Large roof overhangs and verandahs shade the glazed perimeter walls from
4.7m
direct light.
a

6.0m

store

10.0m
kitchen

deck multi-purpose area bar

plan
8.25m

amenities / change rooms

2100mm
a

section a-a

43.0m

elevation
above left
floor plan of university clubhouse

left
side elevation

above right
section a-a through main volume and
service pavilion

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 •Structural Description - In plan, the building adheres to a rigorous grid of a 6000mm module
longitudinally. The section is then extruded in accordance with this grid. The floor of the building
is a simple, and economic to construct, timber platform of hardwood decking on timber joists
supported on steel bearers.

The centralised structural and bracing colonnade is a series of columns 2000mm apart and at
6000mm centres corresponding to the overall grid. The columns are hardwood posts
cantilevered through the floor from the pad footings. The columns are topped with a steel
cap and stub column that then supports an open web nail plate truss spanning longitudinally,
and tapered plywood clad trusses spanning transversely to columns just in from the wall. This
transverse truss is not a true plywood box beam but a timber nail plate truss faced with non-
structural hoop pine. As well as supporting the roof, these trusses provide bracing for the
structure. The centralised colonnades of posts and trusses were fabricated off site, adding to
the speed and economy of construction. The walls, infill panels of windows and doors, were
also fabricated off site.

The roof deck is almost entirely made up of “Ritek” prefabricated roof panels, a proprietary
building item. This enabled a simple, fully insulated roof structure, with a speedy and economic
construction process.

Exterior walls not glazed were clad in plywood with aluminium battens. This also acts as bracing,
providing shear panels to work in conjunction with the bracing trusses. Plywood was also used
for some internal finishes.

detail b

detail a

top
eastern elevation showing the linear and
transparent nature of the building

above left
interior of the dining/multipurpose room
with the central colonnade of posts
supporting series of trusses

above centre
truss detail

above right
outside of the line of windows the
veranda on both sides steps down to
form a mini grandstand for the sports
fields

right
detailed cross section of the pavilion

| architectural resource package | 10 | university clubhouse | 3

 left
view of the bar area - high level
clerestory windows and light shelves
work with ground level glazing to
ensure a balanced level of lighting

transverse
truss

prefabricated
roof panels

light shelf strip glazing

detail a

pre-fab roof
panel

glass louvres

steel pre-fab roof

bracing panel
frame

A Strategy for Design in Timber

•Environmental Performance - From an environmental point of view, good design does not
just involve the selection of materials. It is not enough just to use environmentally friendly
products; the designer has to think about the overall environmental impact of the building,
right throughout its life. For architects to achieve good environmental outcomes, they have
to start with a good design, then choose appropriate materials. An uninsulated timber building
in a cold climate could use so much energy throughout its life in heating as to cancel out the transverse truss

environmental benefit of using timber. Similarly, a building in a hot climate that has
longitudinal truss
inappropriately positioned and unshaded windows, and poor ventilation may be unusable steel
timber column
without expensive and energy consuming air conditioning systems. column
cap

Lindsay and Kerry Clare appreciate timber as a low energy sustainable material, and have a detail b
commitment to using it in their designs. But they also realise that the materials chosen must be
appropriate for their use and within a building that performs well from an environmental point
of view. The University clubhouse is not mechanically cooled by energy consuming air-
conditioners, but instead relies on passive cooling principles to promote a constant airflow •references
through the building. The ceiling is also well insulated.
Hockings, J. 1998, ‘Clubland’,
Architecture Australia, Jan/Feb, pp 64-69
The clubhouse uses low energy materials in much of its construction, but it is also low energy in
Hyatt, P. 1998, ‘Learning Curves: Sunshine
its performance, and fulfils its function well. The more designers recognise and achieve goals Coast University Queensland’, Steel
Profile, Nº 64, Jun, pp 86-93
such as these, the lower will be the environmental impact.
•glossary
•Design for expansion - An important part of the brief for the University Club was to allow for
clerestory window: a small window, or
future expansion. The rhythmic construction system of the University Club, based on one section row of windows, in the upper part of a
room where it can admit light from
extruded along a grid, not only created a building that was economic and quick to build but above an adjacent roof
it provided for ease of expansion in the future. When the need for more space arises, all the light shelf: horizontal element below a
window that reflects direct sunlight up
builder will have to do is fabricate one more set of columns, trusses, roofing, glazing, extend onto a ceiling surface.
the flooring and add another bay onto the building. As the basic section has all the appropriate
nail plate truss: a truss where the node
elements to fulfil the function and for climate and sun control, the new bay will perform as joints are joined with nail plates

well as the rest of the building. The planning of the building reinforces this, clustering key open truss web: a truss where the webs
are open and visible
functions together. In the main building, the complex kitchen and bar are grouped at one
shear panel: a section of wall designed
end, leaving the other free to be extended as required. Similarly, in the amenities building, to resist lateral forces acting in, or
parallel to, the plane of the wall
the rooms are clustered around a central entry area and are free to expand in either direction
away from it. •on the internet

download pdf:
national timber http://timber.org.au/education/architecture/
NTEP

timber
research
education program unit this and other timber projects:
http://oak.arch.utas.edu.au/projects/

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