The beautiful curved walls of The Round, a new performing arts facility in the Melbourne suburb of Nunawading, rise gracefully from the surrounding lawns of Nangnak Gardens.
Sweeping red brickwork blends with towering glass facades in the contemporary public building that includes a 626-seat auditorium, rehearsal rooms and a studio theatre.
It has already garnered widespread praise for its striking architecture, energy-efficient design and sympathetic landscaping, but few of those attending its opening night in October 2023 realised that it would have looked very different if framing made from TRUECORE® steel hadn’t been utilised in the building’s facade design.
“The main curved wall required a 12-by-four-metre steel frame specially designed to support the brickwork,” said Luke Cockerell, Managing Director of light gauge steel frame fabricator CMG Frames, who built the much-lauded facade in close collaboration with Melbourne Masonry.
“If we hadn’t used a light gauge steel framing material such as TRUECORE® steel, it would have been practically impossible to pull off without radically changing the plans.”
TRUECORE® steel is manufactured in Australia by BlueScope, a global leader in the manufacture of industry-leading metallic coated steel products. Its strength-to-weight ratio unlocks a range of new possibilities for architects and engineers.
“A frame on that scale can be very heavy,” Cockerell said. “Using high-strength, lightweight TRUECORE® steel helped make the frame light enough to make this design work.”
Strong and flexible
The intricate facade was designed and verified by structural engineer Felix Dong, principal of LD Consulting Engineers. He agreed that The Round owes its aesthetic appeal to light gauge steel framing made from TRUECORE® steel.
“It’s an advanced lightweight steel, and, in my opinion, is ideal for such a wall,” he said. “The material thickness of the C-sections is one millimetre, so it has to be incredibly strong. If we hadn’t been able to use it, they’d have had to be much thicker, so we were able to keep costs down while delivering on the design intent.”
TRUECORE®️ steel won’t burn or support the spread of flame, it won’t warp, twist or shrink, and its lightweight strength lends itself to more detailed and elaborate designs. It has been used in many striking building facades in Victoria, including:
- The multi-residential development at Grattan St, Prahran
- Latrobe Valley GovHub
- The undulating, prefabricated balustrade frames wrapped around the prestigious Parc Vue Apartments in Bundoora
Well-engineered facade systems designed in light gauge steel made from TRUECORE® steel can deliver the required lateral and vertical wind resistance and protect the building envelope against heavy rain and extreme heat.
Computer-aided design and engineering software is used to visualise and validate every detail of the facade’s design before it is fabricated, assembled and transported to site. They can also be craned into position, so installation is faster and fewer crew members need to work at height.
Immense ceiling support
Cockerell and Dong also worked together on two of the six-storey stations for Melbourne’s new Metro Tunnel.
“We used steel framing made from TRUECORE® steel to support an immensely heavy ceiling across wide spans,” Cockerell said. “The alternative design would have required welded hot-rolled steel sections, which would have been way too heavy and would probably have cost five times as much.”
Dong agreed that the requirements were challenging. The huge, flat ceilings even had to be strong enough to withstand a bomb blast of up to 30 kPa, which is three tons of pressure for every square metre.
Cockerell is calling for more engineers to choose light gauge steel frames for facades to improve building quality and lower lifecycle costs.
“It’s gaining in popularity,” he said, “but not everybody knows about all the benefits. At CMG Frames, we prefer it because of its quality, high tensile strength and the onsite savings it helps unlock.
“What’s particularly impressive about TRUECORE® steel is its industry leading coating technology which improves corrosion performance – it’s something you won’t find elsewhere. We also like that it’s made in Australia, so there’s always plenty of product available. What’s certainly true is that once you’ve worked with it, you never go back!”