The former headquarters of Australian Unity in Melbourne is being transformed into a residential aged care facility in an adaptive reuse project. Located opposite Albert Park Lake at 114 Albert Road, South Melbourne within Australian Unity’s precinct, this transformation will see the 15-storey office tower being converted into a high-rise aged care building. A complete back to shell strip-out was completed, along with all external windows being removed. MANN Ingenuity allowed for all the external façade works to be done internally by placing a netting system over the building, this eliminated the need for scaffold lowering the costs without forfeiting site safety. The existing lift shafts were the most economical solution to remove the vast amounts of material, these shafts are the strongest part of the building and by installing temporary steel loading platforms to catch and remove material, we were able to increase the recycling process using different shafts for material separation. The internal paint lining on all floors contained Asbestos paint, the removal process involves the use of sandblasting material and water, as a result each floor was subsequentially set up as an independent asbestos bubble, capturing all run-off. Using high pressure blasting equipment the structure was handed over with a total clearance. Australian Unity Building
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