The Project
At 36 storeys and 118 metres above North Terrace, Yugo Apartments is one of Adelaide’s tallest buildings and the tallest load-bearing precast concrete building in South Australia. The 725-bed complex, owned by Global Student Accommodation (GSA) and operated by Yugo Apartments, opened in August 2021 on the corner of North Terrace and Frome Road. The $110 million development was also the first project in GSA’s global portfolio to be built in South Australia.
Engaged by head contractor Synergy Construct as part of the design and construct team, WGA delivered all structural, civil, geotechnical, and seismic engineering design for the project, and managed specialist wind load engineering.
Technical Solutions
The building’s slender profile and extreme height required a custom-engineered structural system from the ground up. Its foundation comprises 109 piles averaging 15 metres in depth, all tied together by a thick reinforced concrete base that covers the building’s ground area.
Above ground, WGA incorporated 700 precast reinforced concrete columns into the design, which are integral to both the structural system and the architectural façade. This precast approach allowed columns to be manufactured off-site and erected on the same day, cutting floor-to-floor cycle times and shortening the construction programme by close to two months. WGA incorporated a strict quality control regime to supervise and certify the installation of the total of 60m3 of high strength grout beneath the precast concrete columns.
The structural efficiency also delivered two additional floors beyond the approved building height. Tall, slender buildings flex under wind loads. To manage horizontal movement and meet all earthquake design requirements, WGA incorporated a tuned liquid mass damper on the roof, a first for a construction project in South Australia.
Client Focus
The structural efficiencies WGA designed into the project translated directly into commercial gains for GSA. Two extra floors significantly increased the building’s yield, and the shortened construction programme and reduced programme costs. The precast concrete column system, combined with fly-ash cement substitution and high-strength concrete mixes, also reduced the overall volume of concrete used and lowered the project’s CO2 output compared with a conventional structural approach.
Image Credit: Aaron Citti
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