Louise Belfield
Meriton’s latest development on Queensland’s Gold Coast includes 740 apartments (377 residential and 363 serviced), a recreation area with swimming pool, spa, fitness courtyard, and a barbecue area as well as a vibrant retail precinct. It also includes a cafe and a purpose-built restaurant with stunning beachfront vistas.
At 76 storeys, the Ocean complex is the second highest building in Surfers Paradise and boasts the highest apartments on the Gold Coast, with 360-degree views.
The project recently won Best Suite/Apartment Hotel in the Australian Hotels Association National Awards for Excellence 2022. Towering above the Gold Coast, it combines luxury with 5-star service and breathtaking views.
The project required a high-performance climate solution from top to bottom, including all serviced apartments, residential apartments, and common areas as well as the large commercial spaces on the lower ground, which included restaurants and a variety of retail shops.
Given the sheer size of the building, its floor-to-ceiling glass façade and its location, which can often see sustained temperatures of above 35oC during summer, the development needed to take into consideration the large heat loads received throughout the day, and a reliable climate solution.
To reflect the luxury design of the building, the solution also needed to be invisible to tenants and guests, and quiet. Because of this and the small amount of space in between levels, this posed a design challenge for indoor unit selection.
With a mix of studio, one, two and three bedroom apartments and small plant rooms it was important for all condensing units to be compact and allow for system flexibility (specifically long pipe lengths) to ensure easy installation, commission and ongoing maintenance.
Working with contractors Superior Air-conditioning, Mitsubishi Heavy Industry Air Conditioning Australia (MHIAA) provided a wide selection of ducted, ceiling and wall mounted systems to address these needs.
FDUT slim-line ducted systems offered a high airflow yet discreet solution for many of the common areas including hotel reception area, spa, lobby as well as all the various sized residential and serviced apartments. Because of the compact design of the FDUT units, Superior Air-conditioning was able to install them within the shallow bulkheads, and then connect them in multi-format to several Micro KX condensers.
MHIAA and Superior Air-conditioning then paired the KX series of VRF systems with FDU, FDUA and FDUM ducted systems for other large common areas including cafés, restaurants and other retail spaces located on lower levels.
The FDT series of ceiling cassettes offered a solution for additional common areas including the multiple gyms and back offices, while MHIAA and Superior Air-conditioning installed the FDK series of wall mounted units in other service areas.
MHIAA and Superior Air-conditioning then installed more than 2,000 RC-EXZ3A’s wired controllers throughout the project to provide control over all these systems by both assets owners/operators as well as residents.
Additionally, the installers also integrated a key tag Interface for serviced apartments which would turn systems off when not occupied. This offers energy savings for operators and allowed MHIAA to deliver a reliable climate for this award-winning development.
Read the company profile of MHIAA at HVAC&R Search.
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