Residents of WA’s remote Pilbara region now have access to a world-class medical facility following the recent opening of the new, purpose-built $61.4M Newman Health Service facility.
Along with providing all-encompassing healthcare services that include an emergency department, inpatient beds, a dedicated medical centre, consultation spaces and a dental clinic, the new site has also delivered residents the cutting-edge architecture that’s more commonly seen in Australia’s metropolitan centers rather than in a small regional city.
The vision of Subiaco-based commercial architecture specialists, Silver Thomas Hanley Architecture, the building is characterised by its stunning textured and multicoloured façade and angular roofline.
Fielder’s cladding – including KingKlip® 700 roofing and Fielders Prominence™ and Boulevard™ walling – features prominently in the building’s design, but making sure that all the pieces fitted as per the design intent, were installers, Ridgetech Roofing.
Established in 2014, Ridgetech is a commercial roofing and cladding installation specialist that has developed an enviable reputation for excelling on complex projects such as the one completed in Newman.
The Ridgetech team led by owners Russell Godfrey and Warren Bickmore, worked over both stages of the project for a solid 15 months, with the installation crew ranging from three to five people depending on workflow and site requirements. Despite the challenging nature of the installation, Russell said that the build process progressed quite smoothly.
“When we saw the design of the building, we immediately recognised that there was quite a bit involved in the project, but we were confident of success and achieving a great outcome,” Russell said.
“The cladding had been specified in a combination of standard and custom pan depths with both the Fielders Prominence™ and Fielders Boulevard™ profiles, which was to be applied in a recuring vertical pattern across the façade – a complex application.”
The design also combined multiple colour finishes, additional impact was achieved by having every third line of cladding stand noticeably proud, to create depth and texture.
Russell said that one of the greatest challenges in the installation was maintaining a consistent 15mm gap between cladding rows across the façade, while at the same time achieving the desired finishes when abutting the building’s doors, windows and louvres.
“A lot of precision was needed on the installation; once positioning of the cladding had been calculated we used set-out guides for the patterns and began laying out the grids,” Russell explained.
“For the most part it all went very well but on a couple of occasions we had Fielders fabricate several custom sized pieces to make up any shortfalls.”
Given the vast distance from Newman to Fielders’ manufacturing facility in Perth, packs of 300 or 400 sheets were transported to site according to the building schedule, this required accuracy at the production stage and particular care during transportation.
Russell said that Fielders provided exceptional service and support to Ridgetech Roofing in the lead-up to the installation and throughout the duration of the project.
“Using a mixture of custom cladding depths, widths, and profiles, Fielders needed to provide us with a completely bespoke product for this build,” he said.
“A lot of time and effort was shown by the company to work-out how to best shape the steel to achieve the finish and look that was needed.
“Fielders Customer Service Manager, Joseph Jennings, was a fantastic help with the ordering, production and scheduling of the materials; State Operations Manager, Peter Wood, and Fielders Production Supervisor, Agnel Raphael, created sample panels before we finalised the design of the custom cladding to make sure everyone was happy.”
To ensure the stunning building was completely resistant to water ingress, underneath the Prominence™ and Boulevard™ cladding, Russell and team first installed Fielders flat sheets of COLORBOND® steel Matt in colour Monument®. It’s a functional technique that doubles as a design element for the building, with the Matt Monument® coloured sheets horizontally peeking through the spacing between each sheet of cladding.
Russell said that the Newman Health Service project was excellent to be a part of.
“We worked closely with builder, ADCO Constructions, who were very good and combined with the service we received from Fielders it was a well organised site which helped us deliver a very pleasing result for the client,” he said.
