Yugo Adelaide City is a building of its place. Its form relates to the nearby heritage buildings and its precast structure – the tallest in Australia – capitalises on local construction expertise.
Exemplifying Global Student Accommodation’s philosophy of pastoral care, student life and connection to city and place, the tower set the worldwide standard for GSA’s Yugo brand.
Located on North Terrace at the edge of the city, the tower is distinctly modern. Yet drawing inspiration from a giant column, and using entasis in its structural elements, the building is subtly connected to its classical neighbours. By designing the tower with an exoskeleton and core, the building is conceived as long life, loose fit and can be adapted to other purposes in the future.
We carefully shaped the columns to optimise the tower’s efficiency and performance, providing sun shading, wind bracing and carrying the load of the building. As the thickness of the columns changes over the height of the tower, its accounts for human perspective and reduces the amount of concrete in the building and structure. Recreation spaces are cradled at the pinch point, and the colonnade at street level helps protect the privacy and security of residents in the study rooms.
Maximising the efficiency of construction
We engineered the tower to take advantage of local ingenuity and expertise. Precast manufacturers in Adelaide are of the highest calibre and the only crane in Australia with the capability to handle the size of the columns and the tight proximity of the heritage neighbours was located there. To maximise the efficiency of construction, the positioning of the columns was based on the dimensions of construction hoists to facilitate installation of the more than 600 premanufactured bathrooms.
