While many buildings set within a landscape are designed to blend in, the Ecolinc Science Technology Innovations Centre at Bacchus Marsh near Melbourne does the opposite - its raw aesthetic ensures it dominates its setting.
The centre, funded by the state government as a special innovations environmental science facility for Victorian secondary and primary school students, comprises two science labs, a horticultural facility, a land resource management facility, a multi-purpose project room, a shared resource centre and a conferencing facility within the building.
Externally, attached to the horticultural laboratory is a glass house, made from polycarbonate sandwich panel material, and housing horticultural plots. At the front of the building a model wetland draws stormwater from all over the precinct before it enters a river - dirty water gets pumped back into the wetland, cleaned through its grasses and is released back into the eco system.
According to Neil Appleton, principal of Lyons architectural practice, the ethic behind the building is that as it is a demonstration project the building functions as part of the education program, with students able to measure how much energy it uses, how much water it collects, how hot and cold the inside and outside are.
Appleton says the shape of the building is similar to that of the natural landscape in which objects rarely appear straight and even.
“It’s a long rectilinear plan with a diagonal open corridor running through it to give free access into all rooms,” he says. “It has two lean-tos at either end which are like the entrance and exits to the building so they are very dramatic. It’s a low-set building, with large skillion roofs that lean up against the major form.”
The roofs’ primary cladding material is Spandek Colorbond in two colours, black and white. “The idea behind that is it’s a very clear illustration of heating and cooling in the building,” Appleton says. “The black metal deck heats up more than white so we have lower white cladding and higher black cladding producing natural convection to create a thermal chimney effect inside the building, particularly on the lean-to members. The hot air is flushed out of the building through high-level louvres.
“The major feature of the roof is that the ceiling of the building is concrete and above that is a hot box roof – a black uninsulated box – the insulation is on top of the concrete. The hot box heats up during winter and we can reverse-cycle air out of it back into the facility to provide heating.”
A series of bright green steel tubes appear throughout the design, both internally and externally. On the roof a bright green stormwater pipe carries the water to large rainwater tanks nearby. “They are visual markers that lead you through the facility,” Appleton says. “At some points they are very functional - they can be hand rails, carry electrical conduits, and carry water from the building to water tanks - they’re very descriptive and strong elements of the building.”
This green theme is continued with Ecoply which was used externally on the fascias to provide drama in colour and differentialbetween the metal cladding.
ModWood used for the decking was chosen predominantly because of its ESD principles. A composite product made from a mixture of ground sawdust (also known as woodflour) and recycled plastic, ModWood contains over 50 percent wood (the sawdust), recycled plastic, and additives, stabilisers, bonding agents and pigments. The plastic part of ModWood is sufficiently stiffened by the wood to ensure that it will not warp or buckle, even under harsh sunlight.
The Ecolinc Centre appears to be distorted when approached due to its angles, including the roof which is angled at five degrees to enable water to run off it. “The angles are a simple way of making it a slightly more seamless experience,” Appleton says. “It’s a more dynamic way of using the building.”
These angles, which are formed externally, are sensed internally, he adds, although this is one of the few links between exterior and interior. Unlike many projects which follow the trend of ensuring the outside reflects the inside and vice versa, the exterior and interior of the centre have been deliberately designed to be contrasting. “Inside there is blockwork and concrete which all provides a stable environment, whereas externally it’s lightweight and that allows the heat to dissipate quickly from the outside, which is good ESD principles.” Appleton explains. “We describe it as a magpie in the environment. It’s ostentatious but at the same time it has more of an animalistic relationship to the environment.” n