This project involved the design and construction of a roof measuring approximately 7,865 sqm over the existing first floor 275 bay concrete car park of the South Melbourne Market, which currently covers the ground floor market activities. Council’s brief was to ameliorate the problems of rainwater leaks, heat load during summer and amenity of the shoppers.
PMA has attempted to maximize the number of car parking spaces to be retained. The location of car bays has been amended a little so as to relate to the new columns, which are located over existing columns on the ground floor of the market.
Originally PMA was briefed to document an engineer’s sketches, but the practice argued that the project was one of the larger recent urban insertions in the City of Port Phillip, and therefore worthy of urban design focus. As a scale comparison, the (inner) ‘Triangle’ site adjacent to the Palias Theatre on Jacka Boulevard in St. Kilda is only slightly larger.
PMA’s design solution is a contemporary interpretation of the area’s vernacular roof profiles. South Melbourne has a rich history of industrial buildings with saw-tooth roof profiles, usually metal clad. Often when these rectilinear elevations meet the oblique plan forms of South Melbourne’s streets distinctive profiles emerge. In this scheme the roof plane was twisted to meet the same angle as Melbourne’s greater metropolitan grid. Additionally, this orientation is preferable for solar gain for the photovoltaic cells.
The resulting skew from the South Melbourne grid has resulted in triangular and rhomboidal figuration on the elevations. This contemporary interpretation of the saw-tooth roof thus contributes to the urban fabric by giving it contemporary form and narrating the differing scale of Melbourne’s grids.
The design of this large urban artifact has additionally maximized the potential for solar power generation, and has facilitated the effective capture of storm water (750 kilolitres).Construction was programmed to minimize disruption to the market and to access by shoppers.
Ideally, the strong profile of the roof on the skyline will act as a signifier for the market, and assist in strengthening of the market’s identity over time.
