boiling point #16

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Instant Boiling Water

Zip instant boiling water in state-of-the-art spaces16

Boiling Point Issue 16 zipindustries.com

NewsP.02Sydney Festival & Venice BiennaleWe talk to Sydney Festival Director, Lindy Hume, and Janet Holmes a Court, Australian Commissioner for the Venice Biennale of Architecture, about Zip’s recent sponsorship of both world-class events.

EducationP.04Open UniversityThe refurbishment of QUT S Block by Suters Architects redefines space and wayfinding, while encouraging positive new educational behaviours.

Civic (Cover Story)P.06Sydney AirportWoodhead take inspiration from the great eras of travel to inject a sense of expectation, romance and adventure into Sydney Airport’s Terminal 1.

ResidentialP.08Perfectly formedThe composed lines of a modernist home designed by Bates Smart and Madeleine Blanchfield Architects sets off the views of Cottesloe Beach.

UKP.12Changing the lawFinding the right site in Bristol was just the beginning for Sheppard Robson’s six-year-long design journey with Burges Salmon lawyers.

Welcome to Issue #16 of Boiling Point, the magazine for Zip HydroTap, providing instant boiling and chilled filtered water to state-of-the-art design and architectural spaces.

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Cover image: Terminal 1, Sydney International Airport, by Woodhead International. Photography: John Gollings

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This issue of Boiling Point introduces you to several outstanding architectural projects in which Zip HydroTap boiling and chilled filtered water systems were specified, together with news items about Zip participation in a number of significant events in Australia and abroad.

During January, many members of the Zip team were deeply involved with Sydney Festival 2011, following the appointment of the company as Principal Sponsor. The other major sponsors of Sydney Festival 2011 were the Government of New South Wales (via Communities Arts NSW) and the City of Sydney. The Festival involved several hundred public theatrical and musical performances at more than 20 venues between January 8 and January 30, attracting an audience of close to a million people.

We also were privileged to assist the Australian Institute of Architects by sponsoring their outstanding ‘NOW and WHEN Australian Urbanism’ exhibit at the Venice Biennale in November 2010. The exhibit is currently touring Australia, which you can read about on page 03 of this issue of Boiling Point.

Since our last issue, Master Builders Australia announced its 2010 National Housing Awards and the winner in the category of National Project Homes over $2,000,000 is a home designed and constructed by Braeden Constructions of Noosa, Queensland. You can see details of the home by visiting braedenconstructions.com.au, including a magnificent kitchen starring a Zip HydroTap boiling and chilled filtered water system.

In addition, Master Builders Australia granted Zip a National Export Award in recognition of our achievements in developing markets for Australian-designed and Australian-made instant boiling water systems in more than 50 countries.

Our latest export development initiative is participation in the inaugural Saturday in Design Singapore, presented by Indesign Media Group in Singapore on Saturday 21 May 2011. We are hoping to meet many of our regional supporters on that day.

Michael Crouch AOExecutive ChairmanZip Industries (Aust) Pty [email protected]

News from Zip


A couple of weeks out from the beginning of Sydney Festival 2011, Festival Director Lindy Hume is, she says, utterly “obsessed” with the weather. Of all the huge mountain of detail and behind-the-scenes planning that goes into the famous three-week-long festival (and with so many outdoor events) if Sydney decides to turn on one of its series of torrential summer downpours there’s nothing to be done but watch festival goers get soaked.

“We were incredibly lucky this year,” she says. “We were sure we were going to get bad weather but we didn’t.”

Indeed it was at some of this year’s Festival’s big outdoor events, under clear skies, that Lindy felt everything coming together to perfection. “The weekends were absolutely gorgeous and the big events at the Domain were absolutely delicious,” she says. “The symphony in the Domain was particularly lovely.”

This year the free ‘Symphony in the Domain’ on January 22, entitled Midsummer Shakespeare, featured the Sydney Symphony with John Bell of the Bell Shakespeare company and Sydney Philharmonia Choir. The previous Saturday night, tens of thousands packed the Domain to enjoy a performance by East-LA Chicano rock legends Los Lobos.

Festival timeThese two big free public events were just a couple of the crescendos in a fascinating, crammed and incredibly diverse calendar that included John Malkovich in The Giacomo Variations at the Sydney Opera House; country legend Emmylou Harris at the State Theatre; physical theatre; street theatre; street parties; dance parties; contemporary dance; indie music; classical music; chamber music; world music; experimental theatre; food; photography; comedy; films; renegade artists; hip-hop artists... all attended by locals and visitors that add up into a figure that exceeds seven figures.

It’s huge, it’s getting bigger every year – and its principal sponsor is Zip Industries.

“We’re really proud of our association with Zip,” says Lindy. “I think what’s cool about Zip is that we have a parallel story – both of us are Sydney-based, international organisations that punch above our weight.”

“We were attracted immediately to Zip’s great enterprising and adventurous spirit and their community awareness,” she adds, “and obviously [Zip Executive Chairman] Michael Crouch’s personal passion for the Arts and his sense that it can animate the cultural life and

community life of Australia. I think those things are very appealing for a partnership.

“It’s also great to have a business [as principal sponsor] who wants to get out there and meet clients – meet customers and start a conversation around making our lives better, more comfortable,” says Lindy. “There were lots of synergies between us, and also the energy of the Zip team has been fantastic.”

As for the current energy levels of the Sydney Festival team when Boiling Point spoke to Lindy, her office was “breathing a little easier” in the relative hiatus in the month or two immediately following the highly successful 2011 festival. But soon the frantic work of organising the 2012 event will begin in earnest – and then, come December, Lindy will be nervously eyeing the long-term weather reports for Sydney’s three special weeks in January.

Sydney Festivalsydneyfestival.org.au

Zippy the HydroTap entertaining the crowd at the Sydney Festival 2011

Festival Director Lindy Hume

Successful Perth-based businesswoman and patron of the arts, Janet Holmes a Court, is a self-confessed “frustrated architect” – so to be the Australian Commissioner at last November’s Venice Biennale of Architecture was, she says, “a really marvellous experience. It was like a holiday with responsibilities.”

The Venice Biennale of Architecture is held every two years. In 2010 Australia’s exhibit, sponsored by Zip Industries, ‘NOW and WHEN Australian Urbanism’ featured a new form of 3D stereoscopic technology (beyond that now on our cinema screens). Two stereo screens featured extraordinary images of Australian urban environments both real and imagined by Australian architects – up close and from up in the air – in three minute loops. A record number

Venice Biennale of Architectureof over 170,000 people visited the event, with about 93,000 of those visiting the Philip Cox-designed Australian pavilion.

“The Venice Biennale is one of the world’s most important events for the promotion of international architecture,” Mrs Holmes a Court told Boiling Point, “and we have so many extraordinary architects doing wonderful things.”

Zip Industries’ sponsorship of the event is crucial to its success, she adds. “Frankly the Australian Institute of Architects wouldn’t be able to mount the standard of exhibition if it weren’t for sponsorship and for Zip,” she says. “I see Zip fitting in really well because their technology and design is Australian. I actually have experience of Zip technology because I’ve seen it operating in

the homes of my children. I think it’s marvellous – not only is it good technology but I believe it is environmentally positive and it’s also beautiful design. I’m passionate about things looking good as well as being useful.”

Mrs Holmes a Court has been asked to be Australia’s Commissioner for the 2012 Venice Biennale of Architecture and “it would be my great pleasure to do it again, it was one of the most exciting things I’ve done,” she says. “I felt extremely proud to be associated with so many Australians with such creativity, imagination and technological skill.”

‘NOW and WHEN Australian Urbanism’, sponsored by Zip Industries, will tour Australia during 2011. It will be at the Gold Coast City Gallery, 135 Bundall Road, Surfers Paradise, 26 March – 1 May 2011, and at Object: Centre for Craft and Design, 415 Bourke Street, Surry Hills, Sydney, 2 July – 25 September 2011.

‘NOW and WHEN Australian Urbanism’ exhibition in Australia’s pavilion at the Venice Biennale of Architecture Photography: John Gollings

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Open university

Queensland University of Technology’s S Block has been given a radical rethink to reflect the contemporary taste for more open, social and interactive places for students and teachers alike.

Although parts of Brisbane’s Queensland University of Technology date back to 1908, most of it was built during the 1980s and 1990s. It’s a landscape of shoulder-to-shoulder high-rise buildings, with narrow laneways in between and a network of connective elevated walkways. The tight site has had strict design guidelines applicable to all buildings – including S Block, originally designed by architect John Simpson and built in 1992, but now in need of refurbishment and modernisation.

Addressing the need for more light and more collaborative working environments, the new works to S Block would fundamentally re-invent the approach to some of QUT’s overarching design guidelines. Geoff Street, Suters Architects’ managing principal in Queensland, says that S Block achieved “a redesign that challenged traditional concepts. It expressed how building function has changed since the building was constructed.”

As Street explains: “Our design response was to alter S Block’s existing architectural character, with its enclosed passageways, its spaces that effectively prevented collaboration, and lack of external views from most internal spaces. We

QUT S Block, BrisbaneWords: Louise Martin-Chew/Guy AllenbyPhotography: Christopher Frederick JonesArchitect: Suters Architects

“ The high volume of water was a key issue given the peak loads demanded...”

sought to redefine movement in the building, and to allow social interaction and peer-based learning. We used colour in two functional ways – a single colour was introduced that defined vertical circulation and connection, while each floor has a separate identifiable colour to promote wayfinding without the use of signage.” Partition walls on each level were removed and the façade opened up to allow daylight to enter common areas. New central lounges are now a hub of activity, and lecture theatres include breakout areas. Staff and students are more integrated in this more dynamic, social place and parts of it are busy until as late as 2am.

Accordingly, eight Zip HydroTaps have been used throughout the building, including three with oversized levers for disabled use. “As a long-term property owner QUT demands quality products that will provide many years of reliable and trouble-free service,” explains Street of the choice. “The power-saving feature was also an important consideration in minimising the recurrent cost budget for the project. From an architectural perspective, aesthetics play a part in the selection of products and the HydroTap blended in well with the modern character we

created,” he says. “The high volume of water delivered was also a key issue given the peak loads demanded during class breaks.” The refurbishment was completed on a relatively slim budget of $15 million, including an upgrade of services to cater for current technologies and for building code compliance. QUT’s strict design guidelines were renegotiated as part of the process – taking in the changing expectations of less traditional teaching and learning environments, and greater professional and social interaction. Staff and students have responded enthusiastically and this new approach to teaching and learning is now likely to be applied more generally throughout QUT.

Suters Architects(61 7) 3229 9883sutersarchitects.com.au

For more information about Zip HydroTap products and services, visit zipindustries.com

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The romance of international air travel might now be a distant memory in the age of the ever-shrinking economy airline seat, but as David Holm, principal at Woodhead International maintains, the work his firm has recently completed at Sydney International Airport’s Terminal 1 aims to re-inject some drama and life back into the act of departing for distant shores... “Often travel has been dumbed down to a process – get here, where’s your form, where’s your passport, go here, do that...” he says. “There should be moments of joy and celebration in it.”

Vital to the new approach is a grand and open seating and retail space, called The Forum. It is crowned by a louvred skylight which has been designed as a focal point for the sense of anticipation and excitement you feel at the beginning of any journey. “The great railway stations of the Victorian era, with huge spaces where the trains left from, had that point of emotion,” says Holm. “And so, this was seen as being a key area.”

The skylight gives departing passengers the opportunity to experience a grand sense of

Sydney airportWords: Mandi Keighran/Guy AllenbyPhotography: John GollingsArchitect: Woodhead International

The upgrade of Terminal 1 at Sydney Airport aims to bring back the joy and expectation of air travel via a grand and dramatic place from which to depart.

place, as well as Sydney’s unique quality of light. Two-metre-high fins make sure that direct light doesn’t swamp the retail spaces below. It’s a clever way to modulate the light levels inside that “looks simple but it’s not,” he says.

In fact all of the walls were built using a set of materials – including perspex, acoustic panels and zinc – that would allow the levels of reflection to be manipulated as required. “We wanted to create an ethereal cloud wall,” explains Holm.

The design includes a main seating area where travellers can look out onto the runways, with a spectacular backdrop of the city skyline. Ringing the space are the shops, with the Forum – under the roof – working much as a classical outdoor piazza relates to nearby stores, only inside.

“It is very much about blurring that line between inside and out. So, using urban motifs like the street lighting,” explains Holm. In the same way the floor takes its cues from the outdoors – or more specifically from the cobblestones and travertine in European cities. Moreover, as in the great open piazzas of Europe, drinking fountains

are available for general consumption. Although in this case, rather than traditional stone edifices, Zip Chill Fountain in-wall units (pictured bottom left) are used, which are both hygienic and supplied in configurations suiting adults, children and wheelchair users.

Behind the scenes, in what Woodhead regional principal Steve Parker calls “the back of house areas – where you have agencies, government agencies”, attention to quality and detail is equally important and efficient access to hot and cold refreshment has also been addressed. Zip Hydroboil on-wall boiling water systems and Zip Chilltap underbench units have been installed for all the customs officers, immigration officers and administrative staff – the hundreds of workers that make the airport hum. “We’ve had them [Zip boiling and chilled filtered water systems] in our own offices for eight years,” says Parker. “There’s an industry recognition of the product. We use the best.”

Woodhead International(61 2) 9964 9500woodhead.com.au


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Perfectly formed

Salvado Road HouseWords: Sasha Ivanovich/Guy AllenbyPhotography: Tyrone BraniganArchitect: Bates Smart + Madeleine Blanchfield Architects

A compact but generously proportioned and award-winning house by the sea at Cottesloe, Perth, is characterised by two pavilions – one for living and one for sleeping – separated by a tranquil pond.

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A quiet Cottesloe street, lined with aged Norfolk Island Pines and a view of the Indian Ocean, is an idyllic location for a home. Cottesloe was originally created at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries as a seaside retreat and well-to-do place to savour the stiff sea breeze that habitually springs up in the afternoon – The Fremantle Doctor, nature-given antidote to the heat of Perth.

Nowadays Cottesloe is still a top-drawer haven and local architects look to out-design each other along the beachfront. Just back from the beach, architect Philip Vivian of Bates Smart and his team have worked, in collaboration with architect Madeleine Blanchfield, to create Vivian’s parents’ retirement home in a pine-lined street that’s still filled with romantic cottages from a previous century.

Vivian and Blanchfield’s design is a simple but impressive modernist design – a glass box set delicately on a stone base (which hides the garage) with a flat roof and limestone walls.

It’s small, but generously proportioned and the house embraces its surroundings. There’s a sunny courtyard with a pond – which creates a cooling effect – and limestone walls, and to the south there are panoramic views to the ocean. Spatially, the pond marks out the division between the living/dining/kitchen area from a wing containing bedrooms, a study and bathroom. It’s essentially two rectangular pavilions: one living (public) and one private (sleeping and study).

“It is a continuation of the tradition of the courtyard house,” explains Vivian. The living pavilion faces the street and the sleeping quarters face the rear. The whole site is compact, at only 300m2.

The home also conserves energy and provides year-round comfort. In winter, nights can drop to 0˚C, so underfloor heating was installed. The courtyard pond reflects northern sunlight into the living room and below-ground water tanks recycle rainwater to the gardens and pond.

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A garden wall made of limestone rubble and rammed earth walls deliver low embodied energy and retain thermal mass. In the kitchen, a Zip HydroTap is both energy efficient and, as owner Marie Forrest says, also a “highly efficient use of space, particularly compared to a kettle – while also good looking and not visually intrusive. We use it extensively, especially for a morning cup of tea; and also enjoy having chilled water readily available.” The Zip HydroTap is indicative of a home characterised by a simplicity of line, pleasing proportions and scale, and elegantly resolved details. “We have to acknowledge the builder, George Allingham, for his exceptional attention to detail,” says Vivian.

It’s a home embodied by a restrained palette of local materials that gives it a calm and timeless feel. There’s travertine floor that is continued

from the garden to the interior and a simple flat ceiling. There’s a rammed earth textured wall counterpointed by internal wall surfaces finished in polished plaster.

Elegant, compact and perfectly formed.

This house received the Marshall Clifton Award for Residential Architecture at the Institute of Architects Annual Awards 2010, Western Australian Chapter.

Bates Smart(61 2) 8354 5100 batessmart.com

Madeleine Blanchfield Architects(61 2) 9212 3343 madeleineblanchfield.com


“ Highly efficient use of space, while also good looking and not visually intrusive.”


When leading British commercial law firm, Burges Salmon, moved into their new Bristol headquarters, One Glass Wharf, it represented for them a “complete workstyle culture change for an inherently traditional organisation.” says Andrew German.

German is a partner and the director of practice at Sheppard Robson, the architecture and interior design firm charged with the task of finding and fitting out a new facility to make such a radical cultural shift a reality. In a complex process spanning over six years, Sheppard Robson provided a comprehensive range of services that included finding and acquiring the right building, workplace consulting, space analysis, interior design and art consultancy.

Burges Salmon’s ambitions were to create a showcase building that would attract new clients and further cement relationships with existing clients – not to mention create a workplace that would inspire existing lawyers and attract new top notch recruits. “Understanding the culture of every organisation is fundamental to developing and achieving a client’s aspirations,” says German. The ultimate aim: to create functional, efficient and creative spaces that matched the Burges Salmon’s culture and vision; to create an environment which enhances productivity and workers experience of a place.

In material terms, this resulted in a building that offers a sense of arrival from both staff and clients at the ground floor and a sense of quality that permeates through the whole 16,000m2 of floor space, yet it has been achieved on

Changing the lawBritish commercial law firm Burges Salmon understood that to take their corporate culture into the 21st Century would mean moving the business somewhere that would both reflect and promote dynamic change.

Burges SalmonWords: Guy AllenbyPhotography: Richard WaiteArchitect: Sheppard Robson

a relatively tight budget. “Clever choice of materials and creative flair ensures a balanced design solution,” he says.

A glass factory used to stand on the site, so Sheppard Robson have played on this by introducing striations and glass slots to create different degrees of colour, light and transparency through the whole building.

Sheppard Robson worked closely with the developer architects, Stride Treglown, to meet Burges Salmon’s particular requirements and were instrumental in changing the external fabric of the building from timber to metal and terracotta and changing the window/wall relationship to accommodate 1,500mm wide windows in each lawyer office.

The new building also had to provide a separate client entrance. A client lift (also accessible from the basement carpark where there are dedicated client car spaces) takes clients straight to the fifth floor client suite. Here a

reception area overlooks an outdoor terrace and Bristol beyond. Meeting rooms are configured to meet a range of uses and there are terrace rooms to accommodate dining supplied by on-floor catering.

In the staff areas, a fundamental design element was the integration of “simple, clean and efficient tea points,” says German. Nineteen Zip HydroTaps were installed in the project thereby “taking away the traditional kettle approach,” he says. “These removed an unnecessary process from the daily routine and enabled staff to take advantage of the time saving to allow more interaction with colleagues. These devices minimise service complications and provide one single point of delivery for both boiling and chilled water, a simple approach for an uncomplicated company and quality-led client.”

Sheppard Robson(44 20) 7504 1700sheppardrobson.com


“ Simple, clean and efficient tea points... allow more interaction with colleagues.”

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Instant Boiling Water

AustraliaZip Heaters (Aust) Pty Ltd (61 2) 9796 3100 zipindustries.com

Zip Industries and the publisher hereby disclaim, to the full extent permitted by law, all liability, damages, costs and expenses whatsoever arising from or in connection with copy information or other material appearing in this publication, any negligence of the publisher, or any person’s actions in reliance thereon. Inclusion of any copy information or other material must not be taken as an endorsement by Zip Industries. Views expressed by contributors are personal views and are not necessarily endorsed by Zip Industries. The terms ‘Zip’, ‘Hydroboil’, ‘HydroTap’, ‘Power-Pulse’, ‘Chilltap’ and ‘Chill Fountain’ are trade marks.

Published by Indesign Group(61 2) 9368 0150, [email protected] © Zip Industries

Publisher: Raj NandanOperations: Adele TroegerEditorial: Guy Allenby and Nicky LoboProduction: Sarah DjemalDesign: Morgan CoyleZip Industries: Murray Pope and Jason Haskins

Also in: Europe (Germany), Africa, Asia Pacific – Philippines, Thailand, Taipei, Taiwan

New ZealandZenith Heaters (64 9) 838 8612 zenithheaters.co.nz

United KingdomZip Heaters (UK) Ltd (44) 870 608 8888 zipindustries.co.uk

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boiling point #16

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