One World Builders (OWB) designed, constructed a state-of-the-art resort style pool and alfresco area for Marrakai Apartments in Darwin. This iconic building was one of Darwin’s first high-rise apartment blocks. In the 1980s it was regarded as the number one residential apartment complex. This refurbishment aimed to regain its reputation.
Resort-style pool - 45 m in circumference and spa 10 m, holding 150,000 litres of water with two commercial grade filters and motors.
Al fresco entertaining area—over 25 metres long featuring stainless sinks with gas barbeque and modern bathroom with toilet and shower facilities.
Turf lawn and landscaping
The client required a very short timeframe. Work was to commence in September at the start of the wet season and hand-over had to be no later than 09 December. The body corporate represented several owners of holiday rental apartments who wanted the pool to be open to cover the holiday and Christmas seasons. The objectives were:
Create more space for the residents
Bring the recreation area up to current disability requirements and codes
Create a resort style pool and modern entertaining area
To put Marrakai back “on the map” as one of the top apartment complexes in Darwin
Precise planning was necessary to maximise working time during the wet season (there were 23 sporadic days were no work was able to be completed due to rain keeping us offsite).
OWB team members were flexible in their roles working on both management the hands-on construction seven-days-a-week to keep the job on schedule.
Access was a critical issue in the project’s success. There was no access from the front of the property for trucks or machinery. OWB negotiated with Telstra for use of their driveway.
The site level was a suspended slab over a basement car park which required planning and implementation of back-propping to make it safe for operation of a five tonne excavator.
To accommodate disabled access and the expanded entertaining area the area needed a topping slab and new storm water plan
High levels of health and safety precaution were needed as most of the materials had to be crane lifted on to the site by a 40T crane in an area of heavy pedestrian traffic.
Strong focus on scheduling and stakeholder management will deliver critical projects on time.
Building relationships is key to our business success and without being able to negotiate better access to this job would have significantly increased craneage and traffic management costs.
Possession was taken by OWB on 12 September. Through precise scheduling and planning handover was completed on 5 December-four days in advance of the client's deadline. The client was highly satisfied.
The finished project has met all the client's objectives and the pool and entertaining area is now the main selling point of the apartment complex.
