Cemintel BareStone was featured as the main external façade product of a new public library, part of the $25million Caboolture Hub cultural centre in South-east Queensland, and a new $3.5million primary school, Hawthorn West Primary School (HWPS), in Victoria.

BareStone, part of the CeminSeal family of products, is a pre-finished external cladding solution incorporating the CeminSeal waterblock technology. It provides architects with a modern raw cement look.

The Caboolture Hub, a three-level complex which will cater for the fast growing Moreton Bay region, was designed in joint collaboration between Peddle Thorp Architects (PTA) and James Cubbit Architects (JCA).

PTA Architect, Brett Hudson says, “For the construction of the library, a large volume space at 3000 sqm, our design team was determined to use materials that had a tactile and genuine and honest material quality. The aim was to use raw materials such as glass, zinc and concrete. Cemintel Barestone’s lightweight construction system and its prefinished raw cement texture was the ideal solution.”

Approximately 1000 sqm of BareStone was used in prefinished panels with the architects utilising the flexibility of BareStone’s top hat system to create the aesthetic. Black expressed joints and exposed stainless steel fixings in horizontal bands with random panel widths and zinc fins at the joint creating a shadow-effect, which changes in depth as the sun moves across the facades.

The second project saw Cemintel BareStone featured again as the main external cladding product in Victorian primary school, Hawthorn West Primary School.

Designed by architecture firm Six Degrees Pty Ltd, the nine-classroom, two-storey complex of approximately 950 sqm, was built as part of the Federal Government’s Building Education Revolution (BER).

Six Degrees Architect, Dan Demant explains that, the Hawthorn West Primary School project saw a combination of passive designs and active performance being addressed to ensure health, comfort, productivity and enhancing learning are maximised.

These include: building materials providing thermal mass (such as Cemintel Barestone), high performance insulation, glazing and shading, strategic window to wall ratio, consideration of optimal sitting and orientation, and rain water tanks.