Hickory Group wins international ‘Award of Excellence’ thanks to innovative prefabrication construction technology
Melbourne-based construction company Hickory Group (Opera, Conservatory, Market Lane) were recently granted the ‘Award of Excellence’ for their innovative prefabricated building technology at the Council on Tall Buildings & Urban Habitat (CTBUH) Awards in Shenzhen, China. The patented technology ‘Hickory Building Systems’ was used to construct the 43-level La Trobe Student Accommodation in Melbourne's CBD and by utilising prefabricated components the build took just 22 months, reducing construction time by 30%.
Hickory Group’s Managing Director, George Abram presented the project to a jury who judge applications based on whether they have made an extraordinary contribution to the advancements of construction and propose innovative technical solutions.
“This is a great privilege for Hickory to be on a world stage. It’s very humbling for us as a privately owned construction company from Melbourne, Australia trying to lead the way in innovation in construction. Winning this award gives us a lot of encouragement to keep on our mission to improve the safety, efficiency and quality of high-rise construction worldwide.”
George Abraham, Managing director of Hickory Group
The building is currently the tallest prefabricated student accommodation project in Australia, as well as one of world's tallest prefabricated buildings, standing at 150m. Floor slabs, facades and Sync bathroom pods were all constructed in Hickory Group’s factory and transported to site for installation.
Prefabrication allows construction time to be sped up drastically and with cost and time reduced, there is often extra capacity for buildings to reach taller heights. Taking the majority of the build off-site also reduces disruption to neighbouring properties and is a lot safer to the public environment.
Hickory Group has also utilised a similar prefabrication technique on other projects such as Collins House and 3:East. The Hickory team acknowledged on a YouTube forum that the design process has been refined over the past decade to accommodate each unique build's requirements, such as taking into account that while the façade of high-rises may be prefabricated, many interior features such as tiling are best fitted out in-situ for optimum results.
Check out these incredible time-lapse videos of the Collins House and 3:East builds: