Chau Chak Wing Museum

The Chau Chak Wing Museum at the University of Sydney is a premium concrete building. It was awarded the Kevin Cavanagh Trophy for displaying excellence in concrete above all other entries in the Concrete Institute of Australia’s Awards for Excellence in Concrete 2021. In this webinar, we invite the builder, designing engineer and materials engineer to go behind the scenes and explore the detail of how this award-winning structure was designed and built.
This webinar has three presentations:
Construction techniques used for the Chau Chak Wing Museum
The prototype – considerations and the mistakes
Construction impacts of a 100 YEAR design life
Reinforcement cover
Treatment of reinforcement
Concrete considerations
Crack control (minimization)
Singular wall element considerations
The formwork
Steel detailing
Post-tensioning of the wall
Concrete mix design
Concrete pumping and placement
Concrete supply considerations – what happens if there is a delay in delivery (or pump break-down)
The Challenge of Simplicity
The Chau Chak Wing Museum is a daringly simple structure that pushes the limits of structural engineering. The floating concrete box is supported by only 14 vertical elements with a cantilever on the east end extending beyond 14 metres. This required careful design and construction as the major structural elements stand on display as the finished concrete façade of the building. This presentation will touch on the engineering challenges and how each decision made, stemmed from consideration of the construction techniques to be used.
So that’s what Class 2 means! A Team Approach to Achieving High Quality Concrete Finishes – Chau Chak Wing Museum
The most prominent feature of the Chau Chak Wing Museum is the external off form concrete walls. If the building was to achieve the desired architectural impact, these walls needed to be constructed to a standard not typically achieved and this took a coordinated approach between the builder, concreter and concrete supplier. An understanding of the interaction between formwork design, concrete mix properties, and placing and compaction methods, was necessary if the required outcome was to be achieved. And it all started with a proper understating of what a Class 2 finish actually is.
CPD
This webinar provides 1 hour of CPD. Engineers Australia members may claim this hour of CPD if applicable to their area of engineering practice. This webinar is also recognised CPD for members of other professional bodies with annual CPD obligations. Participants should retain their purchase confirmation as evidence for their CPD records.