BareStone façade panels from Cemintel® were selected for the Sydney Superyacht Marina, meeting practical as well as aesthetic requirements for the contemporary buildings.
Located in an industrial part of Sydney Harbour, the redeveloped Sydney Superyacht Marina buildings are rectangular and modulated, and clad in glass, timber and Cemintel’s BareStone panels.
Architect John Ferres from Scott Carver Architects explains that the Marina has a strong urban maritime setting with structures such as the White Bay Power Station and ANZAC Bridge nearby, and the large yachts in the foreground. The project presented an opportunity to the architects to add some texture and grain to the foreshore.
The brief for the redevelopment required the architects to create an inner-city maritime precinct that would serve as a land-based home for people working on superyachts, with up to 45 berths at the Marina. Superyachts are more than 30 metres long, worth over $10 million, and generally have a crew of 6 to 15 members. Some yachts, according to John, exceed 50 metres in length and have substantial crews.
The steel-framed structure is clad with glass and masonry at the ground level, with Cemintel’s BareStone cladding on the first floor and roof.
Stuart Bell from Richard Crookes Construction says the build on reclaimed land had a few challenges from the seawater and rising water levels, which slowed them down. The builder also had a few complicated design elements to consider when installing the BareStone panels.
He explained that they had some intricate angles because it was on a diagonal roof and could be seen from ANZAC Bridge. They had to line it up carefully with the right fixings and use the right colour. Since the BareStone product was so easy to manoeuvre, they didn’t need cranes.
John says they selected BareStone because its ‘gritty’ raw concrete look fit with the industrial aesthetic and created a strong contrast to the timber ceiling lining. From a practical point of view, the lightweight BareStone shell offered a better alternative to traditional concrete, which would have been far too heavy for this application. Additionally, the builders sought a resilient material because the large roads in the area would expose the building to a lot of dust and atmospheric pollution.
Cemintel BareStone is a pre-finished, lightweight cladding system that combines the look of raw cement with easy installation. The 9mm compressed panels are coated in Cemintel’s unique CeminSeal technology to stop water from penetrating into the sheet while eliminating the need to paint on site.
Speaking about the ease of installation, John says the prefinished cladding system is screwed in place with no sanding or painting required. During the Superyacht Marina project, the cladding panels were installed and finished in one seamless operation.
