FEATURE The house of ice Constructing the home of Australia’s future Winter Olympians has been a gold medal effort in its own right, as energy-efficient design has combined with strict design criteria to deliver a world-class facility. Sean McGowan reports on Melbourne’s Icehouse. Medibank Icehouse in the Docklands Rink 1, later named the Henke Rink in “The fast delivery of the project precinct of Melbourne was first mooted recognition of the contribution to the necessitated accurate early-stage design to in 2004 when the Australian Government sport by Geoffrey Henke AO, was to ensure that correct plant space allocations released a brief to develop a new national accommodate 1,000 spectators and have were made and structure, services and ice sports facility. the capability to hold televised events. architecture were coordinated,” says Rink 2, later named the Bradbury Rink Adams, who is also a member of AIRAH’s Responding to this in collaboration with after 2002 Olympic speed skating gold Victorian division committee. Cox Architects and Ice Sports Australia, medallist Steven Bradbury, was designed Arup was commissioned by ING Real to enable the ice to be melted and Estate Development (ING RED) to temporarily hold events and functions “Each rink has 18km of develop a brief for the facility. This was catering for up to 2,300 guests by to draw on their experiences of designing separating the Henke Rink environment polyethylene tubing facilities at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter from the function space by a movable wall. within the slab to facilitate Olympics and later the 2006 Torino Winter Olympics, as well as other similar Along with providing world-class the cooling, which is facilities around the world. training facilities for aspiring Olympians, installed only 30mm below the facility was also required to cater for Four years later in late 2008, Hansen the general public as well as professional the surface of the concrete. Yuncken was awarded the project under ice hockey, curling, figure skating and To ensure that this is installed a “design and construct, guaranteed speed skating competitions. maximum price” (DC GMP) contract. with the required accuracy With Arup engaged to develop the design is a Herculean task and provide design services during TEchNicaL chaLLENGES ’ construction, the team was given the The timescale combined with the unenviable task of delivering the project technical challenges that Olympic- “This could only have been achieved by within just 15 months, to coincide with standard ice rinks present meant working collaboratively in a 3D design the opening of the Vancouver Winter collaboration between all parties of the and modelling environment. Cox Olympics in February 2010. design and construct team was critical to Architects and ourselves both worked in a successful outcome. Revit, which enabled the designs to be Having evolved over four years before modelled concurrently and continuously the project’s go-ahead, the brief was to According to Nick Adams, M.AIRAH, coordinated, rather than the traditional construct a 9,500 sq m Olympic-standard associate with Arup, delivering such a ‘frozen drawings’ and stop/start ice rink facility incorporating two complex project within 15 months and documentation process.” Olympic-sized ice rinks, a gymnasium, achieving a very flat ice pad surface while medical clinic, bar, café, function space ensuring fog did not occur during ice The brief set out three key performance and headquarters for the Olympic Winter rink operation were among the many criteria for the ice slab, with the first Institute of Australia (OWIA). challenges faced on the project. being that it had to be flat – really flat. 24 EcOLIBriUm • AUGUST 2012 FEATURE Substantially increasing the risk of damage to the pipes was that many workers were required to stand on the layers of steel reinforcement to which the pipes were clipped. Garry Muscat, project manager with Entire, says this process was the biggest challenge his team faced on the project. “It was very important that the glycol pipes be at a uniform layer and separated within the slab to ensure the ice layer would be a uniform thickness and hardness,” he says. Muscat says that if the pipes were too deep down in the slab, then it would take Medibank Icehouse incorporates two Olympic-sized ice rinks. longer to make the ice. Conversely, if the pipes were too close to the surface of the The criteria required that no point on top “The rink concrete slab has to be made concrete, the strength of the slab would of the concrete slab surface be greater than perfectly flat and supplied with very high- be compromised. 6mm above or below an established datum flow rates of a chilled glycol solution, In addition to meeting the strict design level, and locally no two points should as an ice rink will typically only run a deviate more than 3mm in height from maximum 2°C split for supply to return, criteria, the slab also had to be compliant each other within a 3m radius. Secondly, so flow rates are high in relation to the with the BCA and therefore featured crack widths had to be limited to 0.2mm load,” he says. much more steel reinforcement than is to avoid any damage from freezing and typically found in international ice rink “Each rink has 18km of polyethylene thawing, and lastly, the ice had to freeze to constructions. tubing within the slab to facilitate the a guaranteed temperature. cooling, which is installed only 30mm “We were able to use this extra steel Achieving these requirements placed below the surface of the concrete. To within the slab in such a way as to high demands on both the design team ensure that this is installed with the maximise the thermal transfer to the ice and members of the construction team, required accuracy is a Herculean task.” surface and make for very uniform ice and required an enormous amount of surface temperatures, that many of the As a continuous pour of the entire slab coordination on-site. Olympic sports demand,” says Tauchert. was required with no expansion joint, the Due to the ground conditions in the sequence of trucks leaving the concrete To achieve the required flatness, laser- Docklands precinct, 30m long piles had plant was carefully maintained so controlled screeding machines were used to be driven into the ground to support placement of the concrete was in the to ensure a flat, finished surface, while a structural “warm slab” featuring same order. Each slab took eight hours the concrete was allowed to cure properly, embedded heating pipes. On top of that, a to complete. with moisture loss carefully controlled. layer of insulation with high compressive strength supports a “cold slab” with embedded glycol pipework. “Coordination of two layers of reinforcement with cooling pipes spaced at 100mm in a 150mm slab left little tolerance for the construction team,” says Jochen Ristig, associate with Arup’s structural engineering team. This meant detailed planning of lap locations and sequencing was required. Owing to its proven track record of the installation and maintenance of ice rinks in New South Wales and Queensland, Tri Tech Refrigeration was engaged to design and manage the installation of the ice- making refrigeration and rink slab. According to Tri Tech’s Myles Tauchert, The Icehouse is open to the public as well as elite winter athletes. the installation of ice rink slabs is never easy. AUGUST 2012 • EcOLIBriUM 25 FEATURE CFD analysis ensured the HVAC system was adequately sized. AVOIDING FOG This requirement, along with the fluid dynamics (CFD) to ensure that the temperature of the ice arena, presented HVAC system was adequately sized to Professional and Olympic-standard challenges to both the design team deliver these conditions.” ice rinks like those installed at Medibank and mechanical services contractor To demonstrate that the design Icehouse require ice sheets that can be in avoiding the occurrence of fog or controlled at specific ice temperatures conditions could be met, Arup modelled condensation. depending on the sport, with ice the system using ANSYS CFX, a high- temperature uniform at all locations As fog occurs when moist air mixes performance fluid dynamics program. of the slab. with cold moist air, extensive modelling determined that arena design conditions ENERGY EFFiciENCY of 14±2°C and 40±5 per cent relative PROJECT AT A GLANCE humidity; an ice pad temperature ON icE between -3°C and -7°C would achieve Against what would be considered popular the requisite outcomes. thinking, ice rinks by their very nature The professionals actually present significant opportunities “To model warm moist air mixing with Owner: Icehouse Melbourne Pty Ltd to save both energy and water through cold moist air on a psychrometric chart, Project sponsor: a well designed building envelope and a straight line is drawn between the two ING Real Estate Development holistic design of technical systems. Architect: Cox Architects initial air conditions,” Adams says. Indeed, such has been the detail put into Main D&C contractor: Hansen Yuncken “The resulting mixture will lie at some energy-efficient design that an estimated 40 Building services engineer: Arup point along the line, and if the line at any per cent reduction in energy consumption ESD consultant: Cundall point crosses the saturation line, fog is (compared to a typical ice rink) has been Structural engineer: Arup able to form. The boundary condition for achieved at the Icehouse thanks to an Mechanical service contractor: rink fog formation can be determined by energy-efficient building envelope, HVAC Entire Mechanical Services a similar method. and process systems, heat recovery, solar Refrigeration contractor: “The ice is assumed to be held at -7°C, hot water and low-emissivity surfaces.