Collins Arch

Occupying a full 6,000 square metre city block, Collins Arch is Melbourne’s newest architectural landmark located on the renowned Collins Street of the city’s central business district.

Developed by Cbus Property and designed by Woods Bagot in collaboration with SHoP Architects, this structure is composed of a pair of tapered 164-meter towers connected by an elevated skybridge spanning 14 meters at level 39. As a mixed-use development that connects the downtown to the Yarra river, Collins Arch aims to create an around-the-clock community consisting of 49,870 square meters of WELL-rated premium office space occupying the western tower, a 5-star, 294-room hotel occupying the base of the eastern tower, and 184 lush residential apartments and amenities occupying the top portion of the eastern tower and skybridge. In addition, the ground floor will feature a variety of premium retail shops as well as a 1,900-square-meter Market Street park that will form part of downtown Melbourne’s network of landscaped open plazas.

Targeting a 5.5-star NABERS Energy rating and a 6-star Green Star rating, the building aims to create a healthy and productive working environment while ensuring an environmentally sustainable design. The architecture features high-performance floor-to-ceiling glazing that encourages natural light, energy-efficient end-of-trip facilities, electric vehicle charging stations, and naturally lit egress and tenant-communication stairs. This landmark project is anticipated to receive the Australian Excellence designation for sustainability.

Powering the heating system of the building is a series of two 1250-kW Euromax heaters, three 1000-kW Eurogen heaters, and two 800-kW Euromax heaters, producing a combined output of 7100 kW. Supplied by Automatic Heating Global and installed by Ellis Air Conditioning, these condensing boilers are durable, highly-efficient, and high-volume, making them suitable for the large and flexible demand of a big project like Collins Arch.

With combustion chambers and heat exchangers made of full 316 stainless steel which are resistant to corrosion and pitting, these boilers can withstand heavy-duty applications and can last for a long time. Furthermore, the three-pass configuration of the heat exchanger, coupled with its excellent thermal conductivity, make these boilers energy-efficient. Unlike the conventional boilers that only extract heat from the combustion reaction, these condensing boilers further extract heat from the exhaust gases that leave the combustion chamber and enter the third pass stainless steel tubes fitted with tapered fins. In effect, the net efficiency can reach even up to 107%.

The boilers are coupled with LMV 27 and LMV 51 electronic burner controls that enable for a safe command and control of essential parameters like air-fuel ratio, temperature, pressure, leakage, and cycle time. This allows for the seven boilers to accurately respond to the changing heat demand of the building. Lastly, the array was configured to have redundancy so that the units can be serviced anytime without disrupting the heating operations.

Consistent with Collins Arch’s goal to create a sustainable environment that would last for generations in a busy urban center, Automatic Heating provided a heating system that is compact, durable, and eco-friendly.