Bates and Smart’s Dandenong Mental Health facility embraced wood during the design process. The calming and warm characteristics of wood made it the logical primary building material for a healthcare facility and allows the building to integrate into the dense residential neighbourhood.

The project consolidated residential, research, training, and administration functions into a single, purpose-built facility. The extensive use of interior and exterior wood provides warmth, texture, patterning, a non-institutional feel, and low embodied energy. Coated in CUTEK® Extreme, the grain and tactility remain present and not masked over.

CUTEK® Extreme applied to the exterior blackbutt wood offers maximum protection against Melbourne’s unpredictable weather. The design team decided against adding a CUTEK® Colortone, instead allowing the Blackbutt to gracefully transform from a warm brown to a silver gray over time.

Completely exposed to the elements, the dimensional stability properties of CUTEK® Extreme provide long-term protection against cupping, splitting and warping. Even when the wood silvers over time, the protective mechanisms of CUTEK® Extreme will still be at work to repel gas phase moisture.

It was important that the exterior cladding be highly durable and low maintenance. CUTEK® Extreme improves the long-term durability of the wood and offers easy, simple and cost-effective maintenance. Simply clean and recoat – no sanding or stripping required.

The cladding was precoated off-site before installation to simplify and streamline the onsite construction process.