Melbourne Arena, formerly known as Hisense Arena, decided to upgrade the facade by replacing the existing cladding materials with Volcore ViviD panels from ASKIN Performance Panels.

Designed by Peddle Thorp and built by Domain National with Aurecon Group serving as lead engineers, the Melbourne Arena project saw ASKIN being involved in a whole spectrum of tasks from design and drafting, specification and engineering to manufacturing, logistics and recladding.

The product selected for the facade was ASKIN Exteriors ViviD featuring a Volcore core and a seamless profile in COLORBOND Metallic Skybridge and COLORBOND Metallic Citi colours.

ASKIN Performance Panels group sales and marketing manager Adam Shannon said it was a great opportunity for the Victoria-based Australian owned and operated company to be able to put together a complete building solution for the Arena.

“ASKIN was able to adapt and change what we manufacture and make something specific to what the client needed while ensuring we meet the building code requirements of today.”

ASKIN’s Dandenong manufacturing facility upgraded manufacturing equipment to design and develop a panel of specific width and thickness using Volcore ViviD, a non-combustible certified building product that was independently certified, tested and validated by Domain National.

Domain National set an ambitious goal to complete the removal and replacement of 6,500 square metres of cladding in only 12 weeks. Being a massive project for all the companies involved in the execution, a lot of preliminary work was required, according to Domain National general manager Zed Macinkovic.

“We had a 12-week window to complete the work before the Australian Open and as a result, we spent 25,500 hours getting it done. The customer was over the moon. No one could believe that we finished it considering we were initially only supposed to get half the project done.”