A CALL for concept designs to construct luxury apartments in 100-year-old timber silos at Tremain's Mill has been answered.
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Mill owners Stephen and Glenda Birrell approached Charles Sturt University's (CSU) engineering department recently to ask students to get involved in the massive project.
Mr Birrell said he wanted ideas from student engineers who, he said, would be able to think ‘outside the box’ to create innovative designs.
“I want young minds that haven’t been constrained by conventional thought and teaching,” Mr Birrell said earlier this year of his decision to contact CSU.
There are 18 wooden silos at the mill, in two groups of nine, they are built from Oregon timber and are located just behind the concrete silos.
Mr Birrell’s request for a design stipulated that the silos must be kept in tact from the outside, while inside had to be transformed into modern, luxury apartments.
And, as part of their final CSU assignment student engineers Andrew Day, Kevin Win, Lachlan Hicks and Ron Lake did exactly that.
Mr Day said the chance for the students to “speak to a real client” about designs requirements was a significant learning opportunity.
“The original scope was for four [apartments] but the plan is to [now] put five apartments in there,” he said.
Our client genuinely cares what happens to this building and the influence it has on the area that used to be called Mill Town.
- Lachlan Hicks
Recently, the students presented their designs ideas to retrofit the silos into multi-story apartments to Mr and Mrs Birrell.
“The intent of doing this is to leave as much of the existing timber in place as possible,” Mr Day said
“One of the biggest concerns that he [Mr Birrell] had was that he needed to keep this building as untouched as possible to maintain streetscape for heritage purposes because the Bathurst community is very attached to this establishment.”
Mr Hicks said: “Our client genuinely cares what happens to this building and the influence it has on the area that used to be called Mill Town.”
Mr Birrell and he was very impressed with the timber, steel and concrete design options that the students presented.
“They’ve come up with some great engineering ideas that are worthy of consideration,” Mr Birrell said.