Melrose Park is a major Urban Renewal project located approximately 6km from Parramatta CBD and 15km from the Sydney CBD, in the geographic heart of Sydney. The precinct is set to achieve ’30-Minute City’ status, offering residents accessibility within 30 minutes to key employment areas, education, and community and recreational facilities. Covering 30 hectares, the project includes around 6,000 apartments, a new town centre, retail village, community amenities, and around 5 hectares of public green open spaces and parklands.

We were engaged to deliver Mechanical, Electrical, Hydraulic and Fire Protection services across the precinct, supporting one of Sydney’s largest urban renewal projects through its residential and mixed-use stages. Our scope covered the full range of building services disciplines, coordinating design across multiple apartment towers, the town centre, and shared infrastructure.

As part of the scope, ADP Consulting also undertook Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modelling to develop a performance-based smoke and mechanical ventilation strategy for the precinct’s basement car parks. Rather than relying on a conventional exhaust-based ventilation approach, CFD modelling was used to simulate airflow and smoke behaviour under a range of scenarios. This allowed the design to be optimised around jet fan technology in place of extensive ducted extraction.

The results were substantial. Jet fans reduced required exhaust rates by 52%, with fan placement carefully modelled to prevent the build-up of carbon monoxide at stagnation points across the car park. The reduced reliance on ductwork also freed up ceiling space – plenum height on one level was cut by 15m, recovering approximately 50sqm of usable area – while removing the need for that ductwork saved $407k in construction costs.