Charlestown Square Shopping Centre

The building

GPT’s expansion of the Charlestown Square Shopping Centre represents stage 4 of the evolution of Charlestown Square and is focused mainly on the southern portion of the centre. The development involved substantial civil works and construction/relocation of a number of ‘community’ facilities in order to achieve the goal of providing a revised focal point for the Charlestown community.

Charlestown Square Shopping Centre complex is a modern retail regional centre and comprises of seven (7) retail levels. The main commercial centre includes a new cinema, extensions to the main retail mall areas and food courts, relocated majors and a new restaurant piazza, multi deck car parking, loading docks and new specialty shops.

The approach

Fire safety engineering was applied to a number of issues including: rationalisation of automatic suppression systems, detailed smoke hazard management systems supported by comprehensive modelling justification, rationalisation of occupant egress provisions, rationalisation of fire ratings and defined fire compartmentation. The analysis included comprehensive CFD modelling and emergency evacuation simulation modelling using Simulex 3.0.

The project was successfully delivered by the Scientific Fire Services team of engineers and construction was completed in 2010.