Australia 108 will become the tallest residential tower in the Southern Hemisphere by height to the roof, surpassing Eureka Tower and Queensland’s Q1 Tower. The bold and imaginative design by Fender Katsalidis Architects, towers 320 metres and 100 stories over Melbourne’s famous Southbank precinct.
Beyond the sheer scale of the building, the complex aesthetic is inspired by the Commonwealth Star of the Australian flag with a unique golden ‘starburst’ feature projecting out from the slender, curving form of the tower across levels 69 to 72.
The ambitious scale of the building and its complex geography required the experience and expertise of CoxGomyl as market leaders in facade access solutions in order to ensure practical, reliable access coverage and safeguard the well being of the tower for years into the future.
The comprehensive building access system developed by the CoxGomyl team is made up of five Building Maintenance Units working in harmony to provide all of the required coverage and functionality. The first BMU is located in a fixed position at roof level which services the area from the top of the building to the bottom of the starburst feature. With a reach of nearly 34 metres and a system of mullion guides which allow operators to manoeuvre the cradle out from the main facade surface, this challenging feature is made conveniently accessible. A five-stage telescoping jib allows the rooftop BMU to retract down to just 7.9 metres when not in use, while the cradle drops into a parking pit below roof level.
The remainder of the building down to the podium is serviced by four Building Maintenance Units which are located inside the structure itself at level 68, with one BMU providing access to each elevation of the facade. All four BMUs are hidden from view behind doors in the facade when they are not in use, with a complex double knuckle jib construction which allows them to fold down for parking and reach out to both sides of the door openings to achieve complete facade coverage.
Once again, the expert team at CoxGomyl have proven their ability to design and engineer practical and comprehensive facade access solutions for buildings of any size and form.
