Shirley Strickland Reserve

The Shirley Strickland Reserve Redevelopment involved the creation of a new community centre and sporting pavilion for the City of Melville. This two-storey pavilion features six change rooms, versatile community spaces, a club room, a kitchen and kiosk, as well as a commercial tenancy.

The building’s distinctive design highlights the use of Structural GL18 Victoria Ash Glulam Beams (now Tasbeam GL15), with a Cutek Extreme coating, which add elegant timber curves to both the façade and interior spaces.

Curving Glulam is ideal for designing long-span roof structures such as this community centre and provides benefits for both cost savings and the end aesthetics. Mass timber (such as glulam elements) has low density compared to steel and concrete which helps reduce the overall dead weight of the structure.  However, timber exhibits significant orthotropic behaviour, where the maximum allowable stress perpendicular to the grain is greatly less than parallel to the grain. Curving the columns then effectively manages timber’s orthotropic nature, aligning the glulam’s strength to best resist the design loads. The curve also brings the splice connection into a location in the rafter where the moment induced stresses are significantly reduced, allowing for a simple and cost-effective detail where the rafter and column meet. Through a combination of the glulam’s inherent benefits, our fabrication capabilities and design smarts – a great result was achieved for the project.

The Shirley Strickland Reserve Redevelopment stands as a testament to innovation and community enhancement, recognized with the prestigious 2023 Master Builders WA award for Civil Engineering Works in the $5-10 million category.

Vicbeam was delighted to collaborate with all involved parties to help bring Donavan Payne’s stunning design to life.