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design
mag
In the glory days of rail travel, train stations
were often grand architectural conceits.
And not just high-profile destinations such
as London’s St Pancras, Manhattan’s Grand
Central or Melbourne’s Flinders Street: even
humble suburban and regional railway
stations, and associated infrastructure
such as signal boxes, were among the
most splendid of public buildings.
Western Australia’s industrial port city of
Kwinana, 38 kilometres south of Perth, is the
location for a striking new rail training facility
built for the WA Public Transport Authority.
Austral Bricks Burlesque high-gloss bricks
played a pivotal role in bringing an
architectural presence to what could easily
have been a modest utilitarian building.
“Part of our pitch behind this building was
that architecture and design have an
important role to play in projecting an
image and marketing an organisation to
prospective employees and the community,”
says architect Matthew Coniglio.
Although only a young partnership,
Coniglio Ainsworth Architects has already
made an impact, winning the small project
category of the AIA 2012 National Awards
for the Perth Cultural Centre amenities.
Their work is in the public, residential and
commercial arena and includes railway
infrastructure.
The Kwinana Training Facility is located on
a Public Transport Authority site, shared with
a rail freight yard and adjacent to some of
the heavy industry that is Kwinana’s
lifeblood. It’s a dusty, windswept site but the
new landscaping planted around the
training facility will eventually soften that
impact.
The southern half of the broad, single-level
building is clad in pre-finished fibre-cement
panels.This is the business end of the
building, housing classrooms, an office and
a technical room with links to a dedicated
300-metre section of rail track simulating a
typical metro line with a level crossing and
signalling.
Project:
Kwinana Network &
Infrastructure Training Facility
Location:
Kwinana WA
Function:
Railway perway, signalling
and communications training
Owner:
Public Transport Authority of
Western Australia
Architect:
Coniglio Ainsworth Architects
Structural engineer:
Arup
Builder:
Pyramid Constructions
Bricklayer:
C&W Bricklaying
Featured products:
Austral Bricks
Burlesque fully-glazed clay bricks in
Chilling Black
Photography:
Ron Tan, Jonathon Trask