Hansen Yuncken - Sydney Coliseum Theatre - Autodesk University 2020

Summary

This video showcases the incredible journey of constructing the Sydney Coliseum Theatre by Hanson Yuncken. Despite the immense challenge of meeting a fixed deadline, the team overcame numerous design changes and technological hurdles, utilizing advanced digital tools such as Autodesk's technology. Their approach included prefabrication, innovative construction techniques, and effective communication strategies. Ultimately, the project underscored the importance of digital transformation in construction and delivered a world-class performing arts center for Western Sydney, symbolizing a gift of cultural accessibility to the community.

Highlights

• Hanson Yuncken tackled the challenge of a fixed completion date head-on! 😮
• Advanced digital tools and prefabrication helped meet the tight schedule. 🏎️
• Design changes were integrated smoothly, thanks to effective communication. 🙌
• The Sydney Coliseum Theatre stands as a beacon of world-class cultural access. 🇦🇺
• Keith Urban's opening night performance added a thrilling climax to the project. 🎸

Key Takeaways

• Meeting immovable deadlines in construction can make or break a project! 🏗️
• Effective use of digital tools like Autodesk technology was crucial for project success. 💻
• Prefabrication significantly expedited the construction schedule. 🔧
• Collaboration and communication were key to managing design changes and unexpected challenges. 🤝
• Sydney Coliseum Theatre is a proud symbol of cultural accessibility and achievement in Western Sydney. 🎭

Overview

The Sydney Coliseum Theatre project by Hanson Yuncken was a monumental task, largely due to the unyielding deadline and the countless design challenges that cropped up along the way. With Keith Urban set to perform on opening night, there was no room for error, and every step was crucial. Despite the initial completion date slipping due to design changes, the use of advanced digital construction technologies and prefabrication techniques ensured the project stayed on track and met the revised timeline.

Hanson Yuncken’s embrace of digital transformation, particularly through Autodesk’s tools, stood out in this project. The construction team leveraged 4D and 5D modeling for planning and risk management, while mobile tools like BIM360 facilitated effective communication on-site. These innovations enabled them to adapt quickly to change requests, significantly reducing potential delays despite various challenges.

The completion of the Sydney Coliseum Theatre is not just an architectural feat but also a cultural gift to Western Sydney. It symbolizes an egalitarian approach to the arts, providing access to world-class performances regardless of an individual's background. Reflecting on the project, Hanson Yuncken's commitment to combining traditional construction excellence with digital innovation truly shines, leaving a legacy of pride and accomplishment.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:00: Deadline Concerns and Initial Challenges The chapter titled 'Deadline Concerns and Initial Challenges' delves into the significance of deadlines in various contexts, emphasizing their role as a critical factor that can determine success or failure. It highlights the perspective of owners who find delays inexcusable and discusses the greatest challenges faced when adhering to strict timelines. The narrative sets the stage for understanding the pressures and demands associated with meeting deadlines and the initial hurdles encountered in the process.
• 01:00 - 02:30: Innovative Use of Digital Technologies Hanson Younken faced a significant challenge with a non-negotiable deadline for the completion of a project. When the task of constructing a performing arts center in Western Sydney was proposed, they saw parallels between Sydney and Manhattan in New York, particularly regarding the substantial population size of 2.7 million. This comparison highlights the city's demand and potential for cultural infrastructure akin to major global cities.
• 02:30 - 06:30: Design Changes and Their Implications The chapter discusses the motivation and process behind duplicating Sydney's infrastructure in Western Sydney, particularly focusing on a major project to create an opera house similar to the Sydney Opera House. The project began in December 2017 and aimed for completion by November 2019, aligning with a scheduled appearance by Keith Urban on December 12th. The comparison to Chicago highlights the scale and ambition of the project.
• 06:30 - 08:30: Prefabrication and Time Management The chapter titled 'Prefabrication and Time Management' discusses the pressure and importance of meeting a set deadline for a building project. Despite challenges, such as no square walls in the design, the situation provides a valuable opportunity for Hanson Young to implement and showcase advanced digital technologies that have been in development over the past five to six years. The narrative emphasizes the importance of innovative solutions in complex construction scenarios.
• 08:30 - 10:30: Final Stages and Successful Completion In the final stages of the digital transformation journey, rapid technology implementation allows for nearly immediate feedback on decisions made during meetings. The team emphasizes using technology to minimize risks in the construction process by anticipating future challenges leveraging 4D and 5D planning tools.
• 10:30 - 14:00: Celebration and Reflection The chapter titled 'Celebration and Reflection' focuses on the insights gained from a project, emphasizing the role of technology in predicting future outcomes and enhancing communication. Autodesk technology played a crucial role in ensuring the project timeline was met, providing comfort and assurance. A significant highlight was the realization by the site manager of the valuable role 4D sequencing played in the project's success.

Hansen Yuncken - Sydney Coliseum Theatre - Autodesk University 2020 Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 [Music] we were always worried about the deadline it's the most critical thing that could make or break you but delay in an owner's perspective is just unexcusable the single biggest problem that
• 00:30 - 01:00 hanson younken had to solve was the immovable deadline they simply could not move the practical completion date [Music] when we considered building a performing arts center in a theatre western sydney and sydney is similar to manhattan and new york it was such a huge population of 2.7
• 01:00 - 01:30 million just within 10 kilometers here of west hq and that by international scales is the same size as chicago so it became a natural consideration to duplicate the infrastructure provided in sydney the sydney opera house so that we could create the opera house of western sydney so the project started in december 2017 and the original completion date was around the end of november 2019. because ultimately we had keith urban appearing here on the 12th of december
• 01:30 - 02:00 regardless and the curtain needed to go up and the lights needed to be on and the building needed to be completed i was very worried about the deadline it was a complicated job no walls in this place are square the complexity that the project provided enabled hanson young to start to utilize some of the digital technologies that we have been deploying for the last five or six years and it was a fantastic opportunity to showcase
• 02:00 - 02:30 exactly what stage we are at within our digital journey what was amazing for me was that in this day and age you could hold a meeting have discussion and then within a very short turnaround within 24 hours you could see the implication of what your request was we try to utilize technology as much as possible as a tool to de-risk the construction process for us to give us an idea of what we might be coming up against in a week two weeks or four or five weeks time 4d and 5d just helped from a planning
• 02:30 - 03:00 perspective it helped see into the future a little bit where we would be at a certain point in time but it also helped us a lot with our communication and that's when autodesk technology was was very key in giving us levels of comfort that the project timeline was on time one of the better moments that came out of this project was seeing the value that our site manager saw when he realized that the 4d sequencing wasn't just seen to be something that is new value that he saw once he realized that
• 03:00 - 03:30 certain aspects had to be built before certain times and when he realized that we had already ironed out those issues for him that he knew that that was a de-risk then it was a massive side to see that a bit of a relief on him on-site we used mobile autodesk software bim360 it was mainly used to manage the defects on the job but being able to walk around with mobile in hand ipad identify and close out the defects in a timely manner meant that everyone
• 03:30 - 04:00 was kept in the loop and we could make sure that we fixed the things that needed fixing as we went the design of the sydney coliseum theatre evolved and it evolved over a number of years people started actually to believe in what we were going to build and that necessitated changes in design to accommodate the expanded use that we did never ever considered back in 2012. so they started a process of looking at
• 04:00 - 04:30 what potentially needed to be changed to ensure that the building was uh fit for the intended purpose the only catch with that was that they were being reintroduced once the construction had commenced which is always a lot harder we basically worked the program and figured out that we could just about get there with maybe about a week to spare there was no contingencies there was really no room for the unknown so it put a lot of pressure on a lot of our subcontractors as well a lot of reputations were on the line so it basically just meant that we had one go at everything and
• 04:30 - 05:00 everything needed to go pretty much perfectly to get there by the time that the client needed a facility [Music] the first key design change that occurred was the structural steel and the fly tower and that needed to change to be capable of being able to hold international musicals so that was fairly essential but that was a big change in the design because to actually change the engine in a car you can understand
• 05:00 - 05:30 how considerable that was for a performance you have the stage and that's what we all see and what the audience sees is inside the letterbox of the presiding march and what's above the prissini march is the mystery of the theatre and that's what where all the magic happens that brings a show to life for the audience [Music] so you've got the aspect that you need to install double the amount of fly lines which can't be overlooked but the biggest problem was that the change was instructed at a point in time when we
• 05:30 - 06:00 were ready to construct the structure of the fly tower where the rigging system sits and that structure needed to be bolstered it needed to be increased which all in all meant that the project was delayed by about six to eight weeks as we progressed the building the australian ballet visited and became encouraged that they'd like to hold events in western sydney but unfortunately our staging was not large enough so the next change that we considered and we implemented was to change the size of the
• 06:00 - 06:30 stage in about june of 2019 we basically got an instruction to increase the size of the orchestra pit which had been already constructed one of the key challenges around this was that at the time the fit out of the auditorium was being undertaken which meant that there was 20 metres of scaffold above the area that needed to be changed we realized after the sydney symphony orchestra came here that we needed to more than one and a half times increase the size of the pit to hold nearly 80 musicians
• 06:30 - 07:00 those changes basically pushed the completion date past the end of 2019 and into 2020. throughout the project we're always sitting on a knife's edge will it be finished on time because we then need to switch into then looking at the operation of the facility and be ready for acts because it's one thing building it's another thing that we need people in here actually performing so we started to in the second half of the project look at and be very concerned about will they complete the project on time
• 07:00 - 07:30 we had to go back redesign some of our own work to fit in with the building you know that does have an impact on time but we were able to minimise it because it was done in the bim 360 models industrialized construction is the taking of manufacturing process and methodology and applying it to the construction process adopting manufacturing processes can help construction in a few different ways the ability to
• 07:30 - 08:00 manufacture something off-site so you can actually do it in parallel to some of the on-site activities from a cost perspective you know it can be beneficial because you are manufacturing something in a controlled environment as part of the work we did here we prefabricated two major risers on the northern end of the building being able to pre-fabricate these off-site allowed hanson younkin to expedite the program because it was on the critical path of the program due to the fact that the top of these risers supported
• 08:00 - 08:30 a major steel structure it represents the single biggest opportunity for the industry in a generation but it also represents an enormous challenge in that the whole of the industry needs to completely reimagine what it means to construct [Music] so by us prefabricating these major rises our onsite time for the risers was cut down to a couple of days as opposed to 10 weeks
• 08:30 - 09:00 so we saved a significant amount of time all these factors were sort of screaming towards the completion date and the commissioning of the building the next change came along which was uh redesign the whole audio system from ground up this is to handle a larger range of performances in the venue anything from a symphony all the way up to a rock concert it put a lot of pressure on the procurement because it needed to get here in time but it also introduced commissioning process that was different when they did that commissioning process they needed a
• 09:00 - 09:30 complete silence in the stage space and in the auditorium so you weren't able to have any construction process drills hammers etc going on so hanson you can arranged specific times in that commissioning period where they would shut the site to all contractors except for the people commissioning the speakers and the whole build was basically coming really really close to that end date that was really really hard to manage so we needed to introduce shifts to to have the commissioning happening in quiet periods and then working either at night or vice versa we're running out of time everyone's
• 09:30 - 10:00 just stressing out fun you're stressing out i'm stressing out there was no contingencies there was really no room for the unknown the most rewarding time was probably the last four weeks because that's when you sort of started the sense that we were going to achieve what we set out to do two years before
• 10:00 - 10:30 i think the first show that we came to was very nervous because i think we were experiencing the theater for the first time just like everyone else was including the client and their operational team the funny story is like i gotta share this one with you is that even the night that keith irvin performed and who are sitting in the audience and you're waiting for everything to go wrong at keith urban he went room room type thing and the place shook and then this haze came down and everyone thought wow
• 10:30 - 11:00 opening night how good is this you know what a great effect i turned a set of friggin builders dust coming off the roof true story it was a great thing sydney coliseum is definitely the greatest achievement of my construction career so far the biggest achievement was really the project team led by our project manager vanya displaying to the board the progress of the project working through the models showing us
• 11:00 - 11:30 the latest images captured through drone and performance reporting on the project [Music] other companies can learn from hansen yankin by the way they take a long-term view of investment that's not just investment in technology that's importantly investment in people and it's investing and having the right blend of skill set to deliver projects more effectively to deliver projects more efficiently
• 11:30 - 12:00 i think to understand success you need to understand the challenge the challenge with construction is the construction needs to take a digital idea and make it into something physical and what you do in between is really the magic what hans and yunkan have done is that they've applied everything that they know about the digital construction process and 100 years of construction excellence and applied it on the sydney coliseum project they are at the vanguard now of digital
• 12:00 - 12:30 construction hans and yunkan know the industry they're one of the earliest adopters of digital technology to the construction site and i think what's interesting about hanson younken is they see it as a way to delivering an improved outcome connected construction represents the opportunity to bring together all of our tool sets and therefore the concept of big data and the analytics that are associated with that becomes the framework under which we can capture and share our knowledge
• 12:30 - 13:00 [Music] it's been what's so well received because it is a changing of the guard it's a changing of the community the sydney coliseum project represents a gift to the people of western sydney and what it says is that it doesn't matter who you are or where you come from or what your demographic is you have access to a world-class performing arts centre the spirit of hanson young is very much summed up by a tagline
• 13:00 - 13:30 driven by a challenge built with pride it runs to the heart of what we do which is deliver challenging construction projects and we take a huge amount of pride in what we do and how we deliver them they were amazing they did a great job they delivered it on time on budget they're part of the soil in this place nearly 12 months later the relationship between the two partners is that we are partners and the relationship's so strong and i think it's because and i know it's because that together
• 13:30 - 14:00 we've created something very special and both organisations are extremely proud [Music]
• 14:00 - 14:30 [Music] you