At the heart of the project is a 20,000 sqm roof formed from 594 glulam beams and 407 prefabricated roof cassettes. Developed through advanced parametric modelling, each cassette integrates structure, roof cladding, daylight, natural ventilation, rainwater collection and building-integrated photovoltaic panels into a single repeatable assembly. This transformed a highly complex architectural form into a precisely manufactured building system capable of being fabricated off-site and efficiently assembled on site.

The result demonstrates how prefabrication can improve both project delivery and environmental performance. Factory-based manufacture reduced material waste and rework, while the glulam roof significantly reduced embodied carbon compared with conventional structural alternatives. Rather than constraining architectural ambition, prefabrication enabled one of Australia’s most technically demanding civic buildings to be realised with greater precision, efficiency and quality than would have been achievable through conventional construction methods.

Photography: Rasmus Hjortshøj, Tom Roe, Martin Siegner