The Aurora

The Aurora, Brisbane, QLD
Products used: Mapress 316 stainless steel pressure system

When Brisbane's tallest residential tower The Aurora opened in January 2006, it set an important precedent in the use of stainless steel pressure piping in high rise buildings.

The Mapress stainless steel pressfit system is used to take water, in 108mm diameter, straight up to a single reservoir at the top of this 69-storey building. Being able to store all the water for the building's 478 apartments, and its fire fighting sprinkler system, on one floor, rather than on two or more meant huge savings in space and money for the project's developers Bovis Lend Lease.

Head pressure combined with pump pressure means that the Mapress system has to operate at 2500 kPa constantly and is boosted to 3000 kPa each month when routine fire service testing is carried out. "No other system approved for conveying potable water was able to withstand this pressure," says Blucher's Technical Manager, Ian Johnson.