ST FRANCIS XAVIER, HOSPITALITY TRADE TRAINING CENTRE, NEWCASTLE

The Trade Training Centre houses two commercial kitchens for the teaching of hospitality courses. A desire to naturally ventilate the building to provide as comfortable teaching conditions as possible, led to the use of thermal chimneys. Conceived as knife blades cutting through a block of cheese, the chimneys became a very apt metaphor for the activities within the building.

Other passive design techniques such as thermal mass are utilised throughout the building to help regulate temperatures during the day & purge heat during the night. The affect is also assisted by the use of translucent cladding at high level within the blades to pre-heat air high in the chimneys to kick-start the drawing of hot air. The simplicity of the external forms belies the complex systems at work within.