Newman is about 1200km north Perth (15km north of the Tropic of Capricorn) in the East Pilbara Region. Construction of the residential and service centre for Mount Newman Mining Company began in 1967 and in 1990’s BHP Billeton took over. The town now has a population of around 8000 and services a wider regional population of 15,000. The town is also located on the tribal lands of the Nyiyaparli and Martu people.

The climate is categorised as desert with an average annual rainfall of 308mm. Summer daily temperatures often exceed 38deg. C countered by a mild winter of 20deg. to 26deg. daily temperatures and cool nights often below 6deg C.

With the PAMS Healthcare Hub, Kaunitz Yeung Architecture has made a building suited to the East Pilbara climate in many ways, the use of a courtyard for instance. The architects words set out their considerations.

In regard to PV, Newman has an average 3826 hours of sunshine per year (12.1 hours of sunshine per day in December) allowing the 150kW solar array to supply 100% of the power required during the day, when the building is in use. This provides a significant saving in operational costs, and although the architects don’t mention it, it will be one of the few net-zero buildings in the Pilbara. Electricity in Newman is supplied by Newman Power Station, a dual fuel (gas and distillate) generator that has operated since the 70’s.

THE DESIGN APPROACH
The architectural response is imbued with country, cultural and people for the objective of placing wellness at the centre of community and physically representing PAMS ethos. This was underpinned by the co-design process that was an extension of the extensive co-design process that Kaunitz Yeung Architecture led during the Punmu & Parnngurr Clinics completed in 2018. This was underpinned by the architect spending significant time in the communities over years through the projects. This facilitated iterative consultation and a genuine co-design process with the community and specific user groups. Importantly it enabled impromptu ‘yarning’, under a tree, at the petrol pump or on the way to the shop. This enabled all voices to be heard from a nomadic culture that is not always comfortable speaking within the mob. The result is a fine tuning of the architecture that resonates with community, enriching the architecture by making it subtly more appropriate to people, place and culture.

SUSTAINABILITY
The rammed earth and landscaping, including mature tress are key elements of the sustainable approach to the project. The rammed earth significantly reduces embodied energy and improves building performance. The landscaping ecologically repairs the degrade site with endemic species and shades the building.
The other key sustainability feature is the 150kW rooftop photovoltaic array. Newman is one of the driest places in Australia with only 30 days of precipitation a year and almost all its rainfall occurring in two events a year. It is essentially sunny more than 330 days a year. The solar is anticipated to provide 100% of the buildings electricity when the sun is shining. As the building is almost entirely used during the day it is expected that the photovoltaics will provide more than 85% of the building’s electricity. Realtime monitoring will clarify this over time. The solar array is already one of the largest rooftop systems north of Perth and has increased the photovoltaic capacity of the Newman postcode by 13% according to Australian PV Institute data.
Importantly this will reduce the recurrent running costs of the building significantly enabling funding to be directed to better healthcare.

KAUNITZ YEUNG ARCHITECTURE: https://kaunitzyeung.com/project/rammed-earth-health-hub/