The laboratory areas within the building were designed to suit vibration criteria being - RF = 1 to the typical laboratory spaces, VC-C to the laboratory spaces at Level 5, and VC-E/F to the most vibration sensitive areas in the basement. TTW undertook vibration analysis to optimise the structure whilst achieving the required vibration response.
The basement houses the IO Myers and Studio 1 black box theatres and associated spaces, beneath the raked podium slab over. IO Myers has two levels of catwalks, whilst Studio 1 has a full pipe grid, both hung from the podium slab, which itself floats over the theatre spaces with double cantilevered corners extending to over 8m.
The basement shoring comprises of a contiguous piled wall, cantilevering in the short term and propped by ground floor in the long term. Adjacent to the North and West faces of the IO Myers theatres the void to create the IO Myers theatre box disconnects the ground floor plate from the shoring wall, whilst along the west side the ground floor slab cantilevers over 4m from the shoring wall. To resolve the permanent condition whilst maximising headroom under, TTW developed a solution with a tapered slab that cantilevers off the shoring wall under gravity loads, whilst spanning 26m laterally to provide a horizontal prop to the top of the shoring wall.
The SEB sits adjacent to its sister building, MSEB which TTW also designed and delivered with Multiplex for UNSW. The buildings are connected via a multi-level link bridge to the superstructure, and at basement level through openings in the existing contiguous piled wall from MSEB. The building features extensive exposed off-form concrete, particularly around the public podium and circulation spaces which also house the feature steel staircases.
