Bradfield City Centre

Project Overview

A national first in Australian construction: a 6 Star Green Star-rated development built using precast rammed earth panels set within a custom-engineered steel frame. Over two years, Rammed Earth Constructions worked side by side with the builder to develop an entirely new methodology, one that married architectural ambition with genuine environmental performance, and set a precedent the industry hadn't seen before.

Project Story

Design intent

The brief called for the warmth, mass and natural beauty of rammed earth to read across a major civic development without compromising the building's structural system or its environmental targets. The answer was to reimagine how rammed earth could be delivered: not poured in place, but precast and hung, so the earth became an expressive skin rather than a structural constraint.

Use of rammed earth & key features

Rather than a traditional in-situ approach, we created a floating wall effect, precast stabilised rammed earth panels carried within a custom-engineered steel frame. The result lifts the earth visually clear of the ground, giving a monolithic material a lightness rarely associated with it.

Construction highlights

Achieving this took a two-year collaboration with the builder to prototype, test and refine the panel system and its connection to the steel structure. Each panel had to satisfy the dual demands of architectural finish and engineering performance, a process of methodical iteration that produced a repeatable, certifiable methodology.

Technical details

The panels use locally sourced, stabilised rammed earth, contributing to the development's 6 Star Green Star rating through low embodied energy and regional material sourcing.

Relationship to site

By drawing on local earth and pioneering a precast approach suited to a large, fast-moving build, the project shows how rammed earth can scale to the demands of a new city centre while keeping a tangible connection to the ground it rises from.