Constructed by CPB Contractors, the Acute Services Building at Christchurch Public Hospital is the largest New Zealand government project of the Canterbury rebuild. The 62,000m² building houses 12 new operating theatres and procedure rooms, an expanded intensive care unit and emergency department, a state-of-the-art radiology department and inpatient ward blocks for 400 beds including purpose-designed spaces for children.
Involved in the project from its early design stages, Knauf was tasked with working with CPB and Jacobs Engineering to develop a steel-framed alternative to the specified timber-framed walls, which would eliminate moisture issues and help reduce construction time.
“It’s a challenge to come up with a steel-framed solution that meets [Importance Level 4] seismic requirements,” Bill Hill, Project Manager, CPD Contractors, observed.
Seismic performance essential
As the building was designed to Importance Level 4 (IL4) standards, seismic performance was also an important consideration. The walls of the Acute Services Building had to be designed to deal with an out-of-plane movement of 50mm, so a specifically designed deflection head/seismic joint was developed and tested to deal with this. The testing was carried out with the project engineers present, so they could see the performance of the wall’s design.
The solution Knauf developed involved 100,000 linear metres of Knauf metal wall studs and track, using G550 grade steel to provide exceptional strength.
Simplifying partition types
In addition, a range of Knauf plasterboard solutions was specified for the project. “A simplification of the partition types was what we were trying to achieve,” explained Hill. “Over 200 different wall types were originally specified. We went to Knauf to come up with a way of simplifying that as they have a number of different board types with multiple functions.”
The final specification featured just three plasterboard types supplied by Knauf: SHEETROCK®, Multistop™ 4 and Firestop® boards. Multistop 4 technical board was the most extensively used, with 110,000m² specified for wall linings due to its exceptional moisture, fire and impact resistance, and good acoustic properties.
“With the one board we can cover a lot of different scenarios,” Hill said.
Project details
Project: Acute Services Building, Christchurch Hospital, New Zealand
Engineer: Jacobs Engineering
Building Contractors: PB Contractors
Construction: 2016-18
Products: Knauf lining wall & ceiling products including SHEETROCK, Firestop and Multistop, and Knauf Metal Studs & Track
