Babcock Manufacturing Facility Proposal

Techport South Australia

__________

Babcock Australasia’s Adelaide-based Marine Defence business has been integral to the design, construction and through life support of the Collins Class submarine program at Techport, Osborne in Adelaide’s north western suburbs.

Having secured new contracts as part of the Attack Class submarine program, Babcock needed to expand their capability beyond sustainment works, and into the specialist manufacturing of key components for the Attack Class submarines. This required the construction of a new manufacturing facility in the Techport precinct.

Following the completion of a Strategic and Functional Design Brief for Babcock, Baukultur was engaged by Adelaide based developer Emmett to prepare a design proposal to support Emmett’s bid to secure rights to develop the facility for Babcock.

The design follows the intent of the brief to deliver a new type of manufacturing facility that breaks down the differentiation between administrative and workshop functions, instead creating a democratic working environment that unites Babcock’s workforce together in delivering high quality results for their customers. It is also aimed at differentiating Babcock as an employer of choice in the highly competitive defence sector.

Equity of space is a feature of the building, represented by the sharing of facilities such as the cafeteria, change rooms and meeting spaces across the workforce.

Principles commonly accepted in the commercial office sector such as access to daylight and external views are applied to the workshops as well as the office spaces.

Babcock wanted to ensure that their workshop and administrative support staff worked collaboratively together in developing, planning and implementing the complex manufacturing processes involved in their submarine contracts. We created a collaboration zone at the interface between the workshop and administrative areas that included meeting rooms, project rooms, ad hoc meeting spaces that allow staff to come together to meet.

Emmett were successful in reaching preferred status with Babcock with this design before the project was shelved due to the Federal Government’s cancellation of the Attack Class submarine contract in favour of nuclear powered submarines.

__________

Client

Emmett

Location

Techport, South Australia

Completion

2021