Site Construction/Design

Building of Federation Square

At the conclusion of the design competition, there was great haste to proceed with the project. The State Government in collaboration with the Commonwealth Government secured an additional $50 million (through the Federation Fund).

The construction of the deck commenced the second stage of Federation Square, with the first stage being the rationalisation of the railway lines. In the late 1990s, Multiplex Constructions were awarded the contract to construct Federation Square (on top of the 'sub-structure' that had been built by Leighton Constructions) by the then Office of Major Projects acting on behalf of the State Government. In mid-1999 the State Government set up the Fed Square Pty Ltd with the charter to own and operate the Square on its behalf.

In September 1999, the new Labor Government led by Steve Bracks resolved to support the project and to see it through to completion, in the face of a range of significant challenges. Fed Square Pty Ltd, in conjunction with the State Government in early 2000, commenced the task of building an organisation to undertake the operational and commercial activities of the Square and assume responsibilities as client for the project.

The Premier of Victoria, the Hon. Steve Bracks MP, officially opened Federation Square on Saturday 26 October 2002.

Construction of the Deck

The construction of the deck beneath the Square is understood to be the largest expanse of railway decking ever built in Australia. The deck is supported by over 3,000 tonnes of steel beams, 1.4 kilometres of concrete 'crash walls' and over 4,000 vibration-absorbing spring coils and rubber padding. The deck is designed to support some of the most sensitive uses imaginable - galleries, cinemas, and radio and television studios - and it needed to isolate them from vibration and noise.

If the location and its uses were the major complicating factors for the project's success, they were also one of its most important assets in terms of public benefit. For decades the Jolimont rail yards have been an unsightly scar on the face of central Melbourne, cutting it off from the Yarra River. But now, Federation Square has been built on a deck over the top of these rail yards removing this sight from the city scape.

The Fractal Façade

The building façade system, utilising new understandings of surface geometries, allows for the individual buildings of Federation Square to be differentiated from each other, whilst simultaneously maintaining an overall coherence.

Three cladding materials: sandstone, zinc (perforated and solid) and glass have been used, structured within a triangular pinwheel grid. This modular system uses five single triangles (all of the same size and proportion) to make up a self-similar triangular (but larger scale) "panel". Five panels (following the same geometrical logic) are joined together to create a larger scale, self-similar triangular "mega panel", which is then mounted on to the structural frame to form the visible façade.

Through the varying proportions of façade materials within this triangular grid and their combinations within a changing set of patterns or figurations, unique surface qualities have been developed not only for each building, but also for the different orientations of each façade.

The Square

The square was the civic and spatial component for Federation Square, establishing connections with the diverse context of the city and the surrounding urban and riverside landscape. The design allows for a vast array of uses, from the largest scale public gathering of up to 15,000 people to intimate areas for relaxation and thoroughfare.

To distinguish it from the city's existing pavement, the square was surfaced in hand-laid (approx. 500,000) cobblestones of variegated coloured Kimberley sandstone. The square joins seamlessly to the surrounding streetscape at Swanston Street, then rises up one level towards the east, providing entry at an upper level to several of the buildings of Federation Square.

The sandstone paving has been laid in a patterned design as one of the collaborative components of the public artwork programme. Paul Carter, writer and artist, linked this overall design to a separate artwork called nearamnew, set within the Square's surface. This work of sandblasted paving records and voices the site's history through the cultural encounters that have marked it as a site. Consisting of a series of overlapping stone tablets inlaid with layers of typographically scaled and interwoven texts, the artwork reflects different and often conflicting subjects and stories throughout the site's history.

The Labyrinth

The Labyrinth, so called because of its maze of zig-zag surface corrugated concrete walls, is a unique passive cooling system. It is used to provide environmental climate control (cooling and heating) for the glazed Atrium and BMW Edge, as well as acting as a pre-cooling system for the ACMI when its full capacity is not required for the Atrium. Almost 40 x 40 metres and 1.2 km in length, the Labyrinth is positioned beneath the Square but above the actual deck over the rail lines.

Utilising the specific climatic qualities of Melbourne, cool air is pumped through the Labyrinth's cells at night, cooling the concrete walls. By day, air is gently pumped through the cells, the air cooled in turn by the concrete walls. In winter the Labyrinth's thermal mass maintains an inherent warming potential that can be supplemented as required.

The system directs air to the Atrium, dispersed by use of a low-velocity displacement system at floor level. In peak summer conditions, the Labyrinth is capable of delivering air to the Atrium at up to 12°C below the external ambient temperature, equivalent to conventional air conditioning, but using one tenth of the energy consumption and generating less than one-tenth of the CO₂   emissions.