Stages 1 and 2 of the premier Australian Turf Club’s (ATC) venue saw the refurbishment of the lower ground, ground floor and internalisation of the former outdoor betting ring and level 1.

Cassie Zughbi, interior design project leader of the appointed architecture firm for the project, ALTIS Architecture says, “The design intent was to tie in Rosehill Gardens with the design language of ATC’s Randwick renovations but at the same time, giving its own unique identity.” Inspiration was drawn from the “historic concrete structure of the existing building’s external façade and the overall internal layout and shaping of spaces,” she says.

Of the specification of polytec’s Ravine products for ceiling battens, table tops and toilet partitions in the initial program Zughbi says “The idea of timber” served as a linking device and helped to give the large spaces a warm and a homely feel.

“Being able to achieve the natural texture appearance of timber cost effectively as a base element to link design language and scale throughout a large venue was very important,” she says.

Ceiling innovation

Approximately 3,000 lineal metres of timber ceiling battens form a spectacular feature in the betting ring and ground floor function space. The battens were manufactured by Ultraflex using polytec's Natural Oak Ravine woodgrain melamine on 18mm E0 MR MDF substrate with matching ABS edge banding to exposed edges.

Construction firm Taylor, worked in collaboration with ALTIS and the ATC to value engineer the project without compromising the overall quality and intent of the design. Ben Folkard a project manager with Taylor says, “The innovative ceiling solution reduced the need for a significant services upgrade to meet the building code.”

Zughbi says specifying Polytec’s Ravine melamine board for the battens also balanced “the need for a cost effective solution that was warm, had a good timber texture and was available in a decent depth so that views out to the racetrack or to the television screens weren’t compromised.”

Samantha Van Selm a senior estimator at Taylors says, “In projects like Rosehill Gardens where the facility is remaining operational, it’s important to select readily available, preferably Australian made products. It was essential to have a product which had minimal lead time and had the quantities required available.“

Durability demands

Several hundred custom tables were supplied by Cafe Culture + Insitu for the venue. The dining tables use bold table bases and Ypsilon table bases by Pedrali teamed with polytec compact laminate tops in Ravine Café Oak and Natural Oak.

“Durability is incredibly important in a venue like this, it almost has to be the number one priority,” says Zughbi who also specified polytec Natural Oak Ravine finish compact laminate for the TPI Floor Mounted Free Standing (FF) toilet partition systems.

TPI Director Michael Sloan says “the combination of up-market compact laminate, Polytec Ravine in Natural Oak and Tessuto Milan with the very modern FF system partition design is above and beyond what we might expect to fitout at a sports or general entertainment facility.”

He says the FF system’s vertical design and the vertical product grain helps to avoid closing the space in what is a high traffic area. Having a waterproof product with impact resistance “that’s second to none” are other key considerations in commercial bathroom environments.

In terms of manufacture, “very little handling is involved which saves, time, effort and labour,” says Sloan. “It’s the easiest manufacturing process that you can get in this sort of product: the Ravine is supplied to us as completely finished board by polytec - we cut it to size and that’s it,” he says.

“The 1800mm wide x 3600mm sheet sizes that Polytec produce is one of the most important things for us. The grain runs the long way on the sheet and all of the toilet partition panels are designed to be run at 1800mm,” he says, which allows sheet sizes to be cut in half for the TPI FF system – reducing waste by 66 per cent.

Further stages of the refurbishment will include upgrades to existing level 2 bars, amenities, TABs and lobby areas, upgrade of the existing private function suites and creating a new flexible function space to level 3 including new bar and upgrade of amenities.

For more information visit Polytec here