The firm behind the Charles Perkins Centre, fjmt, is a multidisciplinary design studio and one of the region’s foremost and awarded architecture and urban design practices. fjmt is dedicated to design excellence, innovation and enhancing the public domain. fjmt, now owning 97 Archicad licenses, was at the forefront of the industry in Australia, introducing desktop CAD and PDF workflows in the 1990s.

In 2000, they felt the need for a 3D design and documentation package. After testing three candidates, they chose Archicad mainly because of its Teamwork capabilities.

Their initial expectation of the software was merely to support their architectural design and documentation workflows.

Located on the western edge of the University of Sydney Camperdown campus, the Charles Perkins Centre (CPC) is a six-story building (plus three basement levels) designed to foster collaboration and research in a holistic trans-disciplinary manner. The center is a purpose-built facility and Stage 1 of a newly identified Life Sciences Research Precinct.

Balancing research and education needs, the design supports diverse disciplines such as biomedical, bioinformatics, computational as well as clinical research and social sciences.

Within the 50,000 sqm building, over 16,000 sqm is dedicated to wet and dry laboratories. The design maximizes efficiency and flexibility, while encouraging collaboration and interaction between various research domains and project nodes. Open-plan office ‘neighborhoods’, a suite of core lab facilities and shared informal meeting spaces offer the next generation of researchers and practitioners a place to collaborate, mentor, learn and gain inspiration.

The building form and elevations are considered in relation to the context and campus alignments including the Wilkinson Axis. Vertical proportions and rhythms of the north-west facade strengthen the harmonious relationship with the adjacent heritage architecture of St John’s College.

Composed of a complementary sandstone, this façade is characterized by striated slot windows with deep reveals for articulation and shading.

In contrast, the south-east façade overlooks a triangular open space with large expanses of glazing sub-divided by a series of natural brush-anodized aluminum horizontal louvres. Articulated layering of sandstone, glazing and aluminum characterize other façades while responding to internal functions and scaling of the building mass.

A separate pavilion building with a sweeping roofline, adjacent to the main entrance, accommodates a café and access to the 360- seat auditorium.

Primary floors are arranged in a deliberately simple arrangement to facilitate occupant and visitor orientation, with three horizontal functional ‘stripes’ signifying the laboratory zone, interaction/ meeting zone and the workplace zone.
Views across and between the floor plates are optimized in circulation spaces and interaction zones around the atrium to enhance a sense of openness, connection and informal interaction without compromising security or disturbing lab activities.
Warm, earthy colors and layered envirographics contrasts with the smooth, white balustrades and aids in visually articulating the various zones.

The inherent flexibility, versatility, combination of materials, modulation, detailing and the reveal depths, along with a series of integrated sustainability initiatives – like high performance glazing, well thought out sun shading, the use of photovoltaic cells and the smart use of natural daylight entering the atrium – all combine to result in a bold, contemporary expression that respects the campus context and successfully accommodates not only the demands of today, but those of the future.

It was one of the first projects in Archicad 13 for fjmt and the new Teamwork functionality of that version made a positive difference in team productivity. Allowing to reserve and modify individual elements in a quick way helped team members work by trade, by layer, by level or alternatively reserve a few related elements to resolve junctions and interfaces.

Archicad’s versatility allowed the dual production of design and documentation drawings and models, in the overlapped design and construction process. Digital models were used to explain multiple options in presentations, for consultant coordination and workshops with contractors, and helped to understand and resolve complicated 3D interfaces.

The project had the early involvement of a contractor (Brookfield Multiplex Constructions), with fast-tracked design and construction packaged documentation. Models were issued as IFC’s, and BIM coordination was conducted directly with the sub-contractors for clash detection and the general coordination of structure and services.