Kew

Kew Cottages is a community of 281 luxury residences developed by Walker Corporation and Development Victoria on an expansive former hospital site. In the first stage of the development, heating and cooling for the homes was being designed by a full-service engineering firm. However, the engineers’ technical focus on system capacity left shortcomings in their overall solution, particularly with regard to the aesthetic impact of HVAC services on what were architecturally designed residences valued at between $2 million and $6 million.

As a result, Mod Cons was brought onto the project to deliver a complete heating and cooling solution that met the architectural design brief as well as all practical engineering requirements.

Mod Cons’ combination of expertise and access to products not typically familiar to mechanical engineers – in this case, AirSmart indoor environment systems – meant that optimal engineering and design solutions were achieved across the entire development, including retrofitting new HVAC systems to the 70 homes that had been built before they joined the project. The solutions at Kew Cottages enable specific air temperatures to be set for different rooms, and are largely invisible – the unobtrusive linear air grilles integrate heating, cooling and ventilation without disrupting interior design treatments.

Mod Cons’ solutions are also very space efficient. In one apartment building, they enabled the elimination of bulkheads from the design, which in turn meant that the developers could fit an entire additional floor into the approved building height.

The scale of this project, and the quality of the engineering and system design, are a strong testament to Mod Cons’ unique capabilities in heating and cooling. “Our role at Kew Cottages continued for more than five years, right through to project completion,” says Mod Cons director Marko Ivankovic. “During that time, we were a constant, steadying presence, working with multiple architects and builders, to get the job done to the highest possible standard.”