HAMILTON ISLAND YACHT CLUB

Peter M. Allen MIEAust, CPEng, RPEQ

Opus International Consultants Level 12, North Tower, 1-5 Railway Street, Chatswood NSW 2067 Peter.Allen@opus.com.au

ABSTRACT The iconic Hamilton Island Yacht Club and 35 Villas successfully withstood the Category 3 Cyclone Ului last March, less than eight months after its official opening. This paper describes the innovative, cost-effective structural solutions developed by Opus to address the variety of competing architectural, geotechnical, environmental and construction challenges presented at this remote Great Barrier Reef development. The Architect conceived a nautical-shaped Yacht Club with slim terraces cantilevering up to 12.0m over the seashore and petal-shaped roofs that cantilever up to 11.0m, supported on tree-columns. The Clients desire to bring international recognition to Hamilton Island was surpassed.

Fig. 1: Rendered View of the Hamilton Island Yacht Club and Villas Introduction The Hamilton Island Yacht Club is the realisation of an incredible dream: a joint venture between Hamilton Island owners, the Oatley family, and famed yachtsman Iain Murray. They sought to create an internationally recognised facility using the stunning concepts of exceptional Architect, Walter Barda, who envisaged an opportunity to go for the big picture as a celebration of tropical, marine life and boat form, and the drama of yachts taking on the natural forces of wind and water. In 2007, Opus International Consultants (Opus) took up the challenge to push the boundaries of structural engineering design for the dramatic sculptural forms of the Yacht Club and 35 Villas. These unique structures enhance their beautiful location at the entrance to the Hamilton Island boat harbour, with magnificent dual-water vistas

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over both the marina and Dent Passage of the Whitsundays, 20km off the Queensland coast at the southern tip of the Great Barrier Reef.

The Yacht Club features an inspiring central atrium space, recreational and business facilities over three levels, including contemporary indoor/outdoor restaurants and bars, conference, theatre and function rooms and a private health club incorporating a marinafront gymnasium, a 25 metre undercover lap pool and private cellar dining room. The 35 luxurious Villas are nestled in two curled rows along the foreshore and hillside. There are four Villa types, each comprising four bedrooms over four or five split levels, some with plunge pools and basements. A crescent shaped lagoon pool and abundant tropical landscaping complete the sites outstanding spectacle. Structural Engineering Features The structural engineers had to balance the competing demands of designing the Yacht Club and Villas to withstand cyclonic winds and the aggressive seashore environment, with Walter Bardas desire for streamlined nautical profiles, including extreme cantilever terraces and roofs. Opus worked closely with the Client, Architect and Contractor, Parkview Developments throughout the preliminary and detail design, and construction phases to anticipate and resolve cost-effective solutions for construction, transportation (road and barge) and erection issues particular to this remote tropical island location. Walter Bardas Revit computer model was invaluable in understanding the Architectural forms and consequently the development of the structural framework. The modelling would continue to play this vital role through to the end of construction.
Foundations for the Yacht Club and Villas

There was a wide range of difficult ground conditions: The foreshore area was comprised of poorly compacted hydraulically-placed fill mixed with rubble, which had been dredged from the harbour decades before, on marine mud over ignimbrite, a hard volcanic rock, up to 20m below. The rock rises to the hillside, in part an old quarry, but generally covered by deep soil mixed with rock floaters. Together with the Geotechnical Engineer, the most appropriate solutions for each particular condition were determined. For most of the foreshore Villas, rather than piling to rock, a ground improvement technique was adopted: 1.5m depth of the poor fill was removed and replaced by a Soil Raft, comprising five 300 mm thick layers of quarry rock and clay mix on geofabric, compacted to 98% SMD 2%. This mattress of controlled modulus engineered fill enabled those Villas to be constructed with concrete Raft footings, which have since settled only a few millimetres as predicted, without distress. The Yacht Club and the four Villas over the weakest mud were founded via vibrodriven 12 to 22m long steel piles hammered into the underlying rock: 2500m (250 Tonnes) of 50 year-old recycled Dorman Long 24x7 RSJs were sourced from Adelaide. The hillside Villas were supported on 400mm diameter auger piles to bedrock, after floaters had been removed. A Cathodic Prevention system was installed during construction to provide permanent protection from corrosion of the steel piles, together with pile caps and other concrete elements of the Yacht Club exposed to seawater.
Yacht Club Floors and Walls

To simplify construction of the irregular-shaped footprint of the Yacht Club floors, the structural engineers determined an orthogonal framework for a conventionally-formed concrete structure, with slab bands spaced at up to 8.0m centres between columns spaced up to 10.0m centres. Spandrel beams were up to 900mm deep. The first level
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was formed on ground, with reinforced 450mm thick bands and 200mm thick slabs designed suspended up to 8 metres between the steel piles.

The Architect required the three, free-form terraces on the second level of the Yacht Club to cantilever up to 12 metres, much over water, whilst having them appear as slim as possible (Refer Fig. 2). After considering a number of construction options, Opus developed an internally post-tensioned in-situ concrete solution with both long and cross-sections tapering from 900mm to 200mm thick, utilising elegant counteracting keel-shaped pedestals. This met the stringent loading and exposure criteria, whilst enhancing the nautical aesthetics of the building. The faceted formwork of the cantilevers was built on temporary falsework, which was supported over the water on piers, some of which were later utilised for the new marina boardwalk. 3D software was used by specialist sub-contractor, Freysinett, to design and detail the post-tension cables 3 way tendons??. Given these large cantilevers and long internal spans, the second and third levels were post-tensioned. As the islands batching plant could only produce a maximum of 200m 3 of concrete each day, seven and three pours were necessary for each floor, respectively. The dynamic analysis of the vibration behaviour of the slender cantilevers indicated a minimum natural frequency of 3Hz, and their satisfactory performance under crowd loading was validated during the official opening and at numerous subsequent functions. Finite element analysis was utilised for the design of the dramatic 3-storey high walls around the Yacht Club's central atrium. The walls are surfaces of a cylinder, cut and offset in plan to enable the two sides to be tilted at 3 degrees and 7 degrees respectively. The analysis permitted large openings in their 300mm thick reinforced concrete mass that facilitated the slender sculptural elements desired by the Architect, while also serving to anchor the perimeter roof structures against the extreme cyclonic winds (Refer Fig. 3). The atriums presence is enhanced by the underside of its butterfly shaped-roof, which also recreates the hull of a ship. The timber cladding hides a Vshaped vierendeel truss-beam, designed under the central roof gutter to efficiently support these roofs over the span of 19.0m and transfer their loads to tapered circular columns at each end, which incorporate cast-in downpipes. For minimal size, stainless steel RHS columns support the long, reinforced concrete terrace above the lap pool.

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Fig. 2: Yacht Club 12m cantilever terrace

Yacht Club Roof

Fig. 3: Yacht Club dramatic Atrium

As the Yacht Club is located in Region C - Terrain Category 2, the Basic Wind Velocity was determined for serviceability as 45 m/s and for strength as 70 m/s (252 kph) in accordance with AS 1170.1 Wind Loading Code. Numerous wind conditions from several directions were modelled to assess the critical loading combinations on the different walls and roofs. The maximum nett pressures on the cantilever portions of the roof structures were calculated to be 6.4 kPa up and 4.7 kPa down and the maximum local surface pressure 6.3 kPa. The Yacht Clubs central butterfly-shaped roof, four perimeter petal-shaped roofs and two external sails each cover an area up to 500m2. Not deterred by these apparently complex geometries, the engineers developed a consistent design that used the roof shapes to structural and construction advantage. Their cross-section is generated from the surface of a cylinder, so they adopted a curved steel vierendeel grillage, composed of RHS members at 2.4m centres each way, largely 250mm deep x 150mm. Finiteelement analyses, both static and dynamic, confirmed that this steel framework is vertically stiff and extremely rigid horizontally (Refer Fig. 4). It allows the roofs to span up to 16.0m and cantilever up to 11.0m from column centrelines, while effectively transferring the lateral loads from the roofs to the central walls, enabling the roofs perimeters to be supported on slender steel tree-columns (Refer Fig. 2). This design also achieved the Architects requirement to keep structural depth to a minimum between the copper roof cladding and the ceilings/eaves. A fire-engineered solution allowed all of the CHS steel tree-columns to remain fully exposed, with some members having intumescent paint applied to achieve required fire-rating. Opus straightforward methodology for the detailing, fabrication, transportation and erection of the roof framework was fully adopted by the structural steel fabricator, Gay Constructions. The roof framing was designed so that it could be prefabricated as 2.4m wide 'ladder-trusses' up to 15.0m long and shipped to the island, where they were further site-welded into larger roof segments on the ground, prior to being lifted to their final position for completion by in-situ welding and bolting. Whether the roofs are supported on 'tree-columns,' or vertical posts, they meet at a variety of dispositions and angles. This was simply resolved by incorporating additional straight 'rungs' in the ladder frames where necessary, to rest on the CHS posts or 'branches.' Based on the
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Architects Revit model, the careful shop-detailing of the roofs using TEKLA software resulted in no misalignments during construction of the steelwork.

Legend

Ladder Frames

Additional rungs

Tree Columns

Fig. 4: Yacht Club Steel Roof Framing The regular circular supports and straight lines of the roof surfaces generated by the above geometry facilitated the installation of light-gauge, Topspan steel battens at 450mm centres, curved plywood and waterproof membrane, which underlay the copper sheeting. The fixings, plywood and batten design was confirmed by Bluescope Lysaght undertaking Standard Cyclone Testing at James Cook University, Townsville. In that Dynamic Test of the prototype roof cladding, hundreds of fluctuating loads were applied progressively as alternating positive and negative loads up to the ultimate pressure of 6.3 kPa, thus modelling the real, fatigue situation. The southern 17.0m high, sail-like structure above the 'Bommie Restaurant' is framed from a steel grillage that was delivered to the island as three prefabrications, to be bolted together on site similar to the other roofs of the Yacht Club, and is clamped to sloping curved reinforced concrete walls at its base.
Villas

Four basic Villa types were developed from a generic design, with individual Villas being adapted as necessary to suit the various foundation conditions, terrain and incorporation of basement and/or plunge pool options. After consideration of precast concrete and steel-framed structures, the most costefficient methods on the difficult hillside terrain of the island were chosen: reinforced concrete blockwork for the Villas vertical and lateral load-resisting structural elements and a mixture of conventionally-formed beams and Bondek permanent steel formwork slabs for their initial super-elevated floors. The complete structure was modelled using ETABS finite element software (Refer Fig. 5). Where their overall height rose between 5 and 7 stories above ground, the super-elevated hillside Villas were laterally restrained by ground anchors and/or steel cross-bracing to withstand the severe wind loads. The Villa balconies, which cantilever up to 2.5 m, were supported on slender two-storey raking columns of structural steel CHS, designed with cruciform tapers to highlight their finely-detailed pinned ends. Opus also developed a simple cast-in CHS detail to support the intermediate balconies and to facilitate the different construction sequences of some Villas (Refer Fig. 6).
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The Villas' upper terrace faade framework and S-curved steel roofs were prefabricated on the mainland and completed on the island, as vierendeel grillages - similar in methodology to that of the Yacht Clubs steelwork. Environmental and Heritage Features The Yacht Club building is designed for a 100 year life, utilising Cathodic Prevention and hot-dip galvanizing of steelwork, while all exposed concrete has generous cover, special mix and surface treatment to satisfy the aggressive marine environment. Ground improvement of the dredged fill, as described above, reduced the length of piles required for the project by approximately 2000m (200 Tonnes) of structural steel, which is a huge saving in resources and transportation costs. Furthermore, the piles were installed using a low noise vibratory rig and sourced from recycled steel sections. Despite the 5 metre tidal range, the construction methodology ensured minimum environmental impact on Dent Passage and the boatharbour, in accordance with the requirements of Whitsunday local authorities and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. The heritage lighthouse at the point of the breakwater was retained and complements the development.

Conclusion The project was officially opened by the Premier of Queensland at the commencement of the annual Hamilton Island Yacht Race Week in August 2009. Less than eight months later, in March 2010, Hamilton Island bore the full brunt of Category 3 Cyclone Ului. The Yacht Club and Villas successfully withstood wind gusts in excess of 200 kph with no structural damage, which was a testament to the buildings structural robustness that is fundamental to, yet hidden within, its beautiful nautical shapes. Some commentators have claimed that it is Queenslands rival to the Sydney Opera House, with its dramatic architectural forms, clean finishes and superior functionality. Already the Yacht Club is bringing international recognition, with its classic lines being utilised as an emblem for Hamilton Island. It will be the focus for future Hamilton Island Race Weeks and attract more yachtsmen and tourists from around the world to this tropical island paradise. Now that the astounding Hamilton Island Yacht Club has readily endured a severe cyclone, not only has its structural integrity been validated and its longevity assured, but its credit to Australian Engineering ingenuity is evident for the world to see.

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Fig. 5: ETABS Model of Hillside Villa ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Fig. 6: Hillside Villa Type D

Client: Hamilton Island Enterprises c/- Peter Schooley Architect: Walter Barda Design Walter Barda, Adrian Esdaile and Michael Juda Structural Engineer: Opus International Consultants Peter Allen and Luis Quispe Geotechnical Engineer: David Dickson Head Contractor: Parkview Developments Gareth Hodgins Post-tension Sub-Contractor: Freysinett Tim Copeman and Slobodan Selenovic Structural Steel Sub-Contractor: Gay Constructions Brendon Pike Bluescope Steel Keith Johnston Trend Magazine February 2010 Edition

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