This 1.6 km Underground Labyrinth Has an Unusual Purpose
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ต.ค. 2024
- Under Federation Square in the heart of Melbourne is a 1.6km maze: here’s why. | Go to squarespace.co... to get a free trial and 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.
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Thanks to Federation Square for the invite, and the graphics; thanks to Esme James for filming - www.esmeljames...
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Unknown Melbourne is a series exploring the weird and wonderful parts of the city.
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More surprising than the labyrinth under Fed Square is the fact that "coolth" is a real word.
You could say the it's really cooth that it is!
Mike Tyson surprised that he's been using a correct word all along
@Nospater I discovered it thanks to Sting and the Police, except that I wasn't sure it was a real word, more like a pop-singer inventing something that fit. Given that Sting was a teacher, I should have known at the time.
Now that I have found you
In the coolth of your evening smile
In the shade of your parasol
And your love flows through me
'Though I drink at your pool
I burn for you
Depending upon my mood I'm not sure whether I prefer The Police's I Burn for You or INXS's Burn for You.
Yeah, it definitely sounds like incorrect over-regularisation. Or the sort of thing I'd make up and insist is real to annoy people, only to find out I's right all along.
Don't blame you you summer child.
You should do a video about the many under-city passageways in the Melbourne CBD. There are so many subterranean areas I walk over regularly which I would love to know about. Loved this vid!!!
Thanks Shannon - it’s a neat idea.
Thank you Julian, that system is amazing. It is good to see that the designers and planners didn't just go for "the look" aspect but also considered how to take advantage of their close proximity to the Yarra. Big shout out to Fed Square management too for allowing you to access and film the labyrinth
Agreed - was very cool to visit this one.
Dude, I worked in and around fed for a couple years. I went through all the underground loading areas and even into the security room itself but never knew about the lab. Im genuinely impressed. Excellent video mate.
Thanks, Sean! This one might have actually been Unknown Melbourne…
I love learning about these kind of large-scale HVAC solutions, since remaining at a constant comfortable temperature is a feature we often take for granted in large public work/recreation spaces but the engineering behind these solutions is often pretty amazing.
I recently had a chance to explore a bit of the fire suppression plant and storage tanks at the warehouse site where I work, some pretty cool engineering in these largely hidden systems too!
My theory is they designed it this way after being inspired by the heat sync metal plate and fan ductwork’s on most modern computers, purposely keeping the heat lower and acting almost like a heat dissipation battery, allowing for comfortable street life above ground. Within busy cities like Melbourne where there often lots of skyscrapers or tall buildings, and especially ones like New York City with lots of car dependency in its urban planning, it’s common to see the downtown areas contain a higher temperature where the taller buildings create a biome or bubble effect on the wind around them, consequently heating them up.
The other benefits this gives is lowered local building running costs being lowered due to any heating system being built near to there being entirely arranged as something to make up a very small desired temperature gap, because of the thermal battery underneath.
This can sometimes be further enhanced by buildings using glass at certain angles (like the famous walkie-talkie building in london, having an ultraviolet ray problem). To combat this good methods to keep ground temperature in a comfortable position would be to plant lots of trees and diverse greenery, so any excess rainwater or ground surface temperature can be lowered slightly, and purposely choosing to limit the angle or height of buildings unless thermal shield barrier plating can be placed over the outside in urban planning code.
With warehouses like the ones you mentioned, a good method to perhaps suggest is a rooftop filled with mosses or different types of grassy turfing to simultaneously provide fresh drinking water, natural air conditioning, and a small local gas neutralisation system to renew the air quality and lower carbon emissions.
Hope this helps with anything :)
@@maxnewts oh yes now I can pretend to be a much more educated wanker, and dazzle people with my newfound knowledge of things no one cares about unless it's their job.
Julian is like a really cool geography teacher. He packs so much information into each succinct, superbly delivered video.
Thanks, Rachelle!
He's also much less anti-vax and fundamentalist Christian than my geography teacher was
I never thought HVAC design could be this interesting!
Thanks, Patrick! - HVAC content is best content.
Interesting, never knew Melbourne had anything like this 😮
Melbourne has a plethora of things like this! :D
It's great to not seeing you back uploading content but getting the recognition you deserve. Way to go!!!
As a Brisbane-ite who loves Melbourne, your channel really brings me back to being in the city and allows me to learn some super interesting facts along the way. Love your content and keep up the great work!
Thanks, Jack! Will have to head up and make some Brissy content at some stage.
@@JulianOShea Brisbane has some great history and some cool places so you wouldn’t be short of any ideas here!
Ahhh, we so desperately need this labyrinth system under King George Square- I've been known to cook my breakfast directly on it in the height of summer, haha! Shame the underground space has been taken up by the Busway.
This is usually one of the buildings open as part of Open House Melbourne, which this year will be held on 30 + 31 July. Fed Square is a pre-booked space with the program being released on 30 June.
Yep - Great event
I love having an Aussie Tom Scott in Melbourne 🥰
I'd love to see a collab between them
Fascinating! So glad you’re getting such a name for yourself, organisations are reaching out to share the interesting tidbits directly.
Thanks! Yep - it is cool to get the chance to see interesting new places for sure.
Love that aitrium and facintateed to learn about the eco-friendly heating and cooling. Thanks.
Hunh, that's a really cool bit of kit I didn't know about. Looking at the thumbnail, I was expecting to hear about the maze of tunnels beneath Melbourne for accessing utilities and access to the metro.
Seeing the Atrium these days just reminds me that the bastards in charge kicked out the great book market that was held there on Sundays because it wasn't profitable enough, and then they haven't done anything interesting with the space since smh
I've worked at Fed Square for many years. Never had an excuse to go in there.
Now I don't have to!
Great content. Keep it up.
Thanks, mate
Thanks for another video Julian and thanks for adding "coolth" to my vocabulary!
My pleasure!
I knew Fed Square was built on a deck above the Flinders Street railway lines, but I had no idea there was a whole floor and all this stuff under the surface! I have however noticed the brick vents on Old Batman Ave Walk, I just assumed they were for the building above, not the whole atrium! Also the wooden slats in the atrium as vents are genius!
Makes it way cooler knowing what they're for huh.
As a Melburnian, would love to go down there if they ever open to public haha
They’ve opened it as part of Open House in the past - check it out then.
@@JulianOShea This years program is released on 30 June.
Quite the Tom Scott moment! no idea that was there!
Julian makes me proud to me a Melburnian
Doing my part!
feel that Mal burn ... jus' kidding - I lived there for 5 years and loved it ...
As part of the 2022 Open House Melbourne program Fed Square 'behind the scenes' tours will run on Saturday 30 July. Tours run 10am, 11.30am, 1.15pm & 2.45pm. Running 75 minutes in groups of 15 people. Only 15 people per tour, please arrive early to avoid disappointment. Tour participants to meet in front of the stage in the Main Square approx 10 minutes before the scheduled tour time.
These are always incredibly popular. Get there early!
how amazing - I live right next to it and never knew! Thanks Julian for all your gems!
Cheers Paul!
I noticed that brick vent structure when I was much younger and wondered what was behind it. Young me would have been blown away if you said a labyrinth was behind it.
They have a similar system (albeit far smaller) at Royal Children's Hospital in Parkville.
Love your videos Julian. Watching these videos you post make me really appreciate the city I live in so much more. Thank you for making genuinely interesting content.
Glad you like them!
When u get to watch the next Julian O'Shea video before it even gets processed for 1080p 😤
I imagine the Minotaurs down there are all qualified HVAC technicians
Excellent comment.
Yet another amazing video, Julian. But why 480p?
Dunno. Something went wrong. There will be sackings.
I’d love to see the hidden underground of Melbourne. I’m sure most of it is just boring cellars and storage but I wonder what else there is. St V’s has tunnels
good video! Do you have a 1080P version?
There are tunnels and vaults under the Treasury Buildings which are pretty "cool" too. There are railway tracks where the wagons laden with gold would be wheeled around.....amazing!
why is this in 480p
There's another one beneath the Royal Children's Hospital too
Oh hey, Melbourne Zoo has a similar thing under its Wild Seas area but much smaller.
real life 'backrooms'? 0_o
The system would also help to remove dust from visitors when running so the indoor spaces don’t need to be vacuumed as frequently! :)
Hmm.. Sustainability... I wonder how many gigawatts of energy were gobbled up in the creation of all that concrete...
Awesome. Thank you for covering this. I had no idea this existed at the square and this sort cooling existed. Looking forward to the next video. Keep up the good work.
There is another labyrinth nearby... the lavatories at Riverland Bar... rubber boots are recommended.
wow, that's some...COOL ingenuity!
I love this channel! Essentially Tom Scott, but exclusively for Australia - which is absolutely AMAZING!!
Why didn't you show the wall of skulls, famously held in the Federation Square labyrinth?
I hang 'round the frozen pea section at Woolies when it's hot. It keeps me cool, and it's a good place to meet chicks. In court, the judge called me a Legume Lothario, before dismissing all charges. The system works.
Please tell me you ripped one while you were down there? That’s like next level god tier stuff right there.
Maybe I'm old, but when I think of Federation Square I think of a big, sunken fountain and a bunch of underground shops that were replaced by a flipping luxury apartment tower.
And even before you say anything, having been a stage lighting guy in the previous century, that's the biggest heat sink I've ever seen, let alone thought I'd see. And anybody who remembers their high school biology lessons on the human intestines will understand why it's ribbed: surface area.
This is an ingenious feat of engineering to reduce the heat island effect of Federation Square.
Laser tag lets go!!!
That is so cool!! It is a pretty smart cooling solution
So it's basically a giant radiator.. pretty cool
Been a while since you uploaded looks like you’ve hit a BOOM in subs. Been here since 10k! Love t see you have grown since then!
Cheers, Jack. Great to see an early adopter. More vids on their way.
Seems like in the winter it would be a bit on the cool side - a cave is naturally cool, but if you're not moving around, you might want a jacket. While this saves on heating/cooling, making cement is energy intensive, and that's a lot of concrete!. Hopefully we'll figure out a way to do that more efficiently.
Another fascinating video, Julian. Love your work
Thanks, Jason!
When you've made so many videos about all the nifty places in Australia that all the other nifty places in Australia personally reach out and want you to make a video so they're not the only ones left out. 😂😂😂
Very cool, would love to go down myself one day.
If you ever get the chance. Grab it!
Another fantastic and insightful video about our beautiful city! Well done and keep it up, Julian!
Thanks, Jason! - Glad you enjoyed it. More on their way…
G'day mate, is the Labyrinth open to the public by appointment? Love your channel mate.
Thanks, mate. This isn’t open to the public - but they have opened it in Open House Melbourne in the past - keep your eyes out.
Is this showing up as max 480p resolution to anyone else?
i had to find this video just after i came back from melbourne 💔
Fed square is 20 years old?! Sorry what?!
That's really trippy. No idea that was under my feet.
That was amazing, I would never have known
I wonder if Jeff's shed has a similar system
Really neat video, but how come it's only in 480p? I'd really like to see this labyrinth in HD.
Not sure what happened with this one.
There is used to be an underground mall structure under Fed square before Fed square was built. I wonder if its still there.
Do you mean under the railway tracks?
Princes Bridge Station and mall.
Completely gone now. 👍🏼
Very cool, more places should do this.
Congratulations on the quad cycle record
Thanks, Shane! Was a fun day. :)
oh hell yeah can't wait to use coolth from now
Fed square was the location of Melbourne's first morgue.
Would be interesting to know how much excess concrete is required above the structural need and by extension the embodied energy for this system.
True, it would also be interesting to know how much fan energy is needed to push that air over such a long distance
@@jimbolimbobimbo369 I guess overall this system is trying to beat an evaporative cooling solution (unless they had of decided to go all out and used river water through a heat exchanger).
@@jay-em I'm presuming the drawth of the air from over the Yarra River would somehow have higher humidity to help balance those occasional crazy hot dry 42C winds from the Mallee Desert
Melbourne is so cool. And now we know why! Thanks again, Julian!
1.6km of labyrinth... ...that's a lot of concrete (= CO2 emission). I wonder how many decades it will take to reclaim the CO2 emissions from so much concrete?
yep. How much expense was building this even beyond that? They will never make back that energy loss. So many of these projects are scams.
Nice work
The cooled or warmed air gets pumped by electric fans into the Atrium, which is open to the elements?
How is this good for the environment?
Can you walk the entire 1.6km? Are you allowed to? Is there an exit at the other end too, or is it just the vents, and you'd have to turn back again at the end?
They generally only do that when they clean it out. I didn’t go in that far. There are two duplicate chambers.
Is it TH-cam or just me? 480p is the highest quality I can watch this.
PS Always love your videos Julian.
Thanks, mate! - Yep - weird quality setting was on my end. Not sure went rogue.
Shows how completely we take cleaver design for granted in buildings like Federation Square. Another great Melbourne icon.
Indeed. Thanks, Luke!
So if fed square is a processor then this is the heat sink? That's awesome I Never knew about this
Kinda, yeah! Though there's another aspect here. A heat sink uses ambient air to bring the hot CPU down to a temp closer to the current ambient temp. Whereas this takes a bunch of concrete, cools it down using the cool night air, and then uses that cooled stone to cool down the hot daytime air. It definitely has a lot in common with heat sinks, but it's also kinda like a thermal battery, storing cool temperature at night, and releasing it during the day!
Um I've spent my life walking across this each day not knowing there's a damn LABYRINTH is underneath me! Wow
Hi Julian, any chance of you getting access to the secret ball room at the top of Flinders st station?
It’s open right now! (Rising Festival - A Miracle Constantly Repeated)
Let's hope at some stage in the future they cover over the rest of the Jolimont Road yard so it too can be used for useful buildings and other useful space....
There is some real potential there. What would you like to see?
@@JulianOShea Covering the rail yards to Spring Sreet, and perhaps even down to the MCG. As for uses for the new space... perhaps more sporting facilities, more hosuing accomodation, maybe green spaces...
ha. i worked there as a cleaner for 6 months a couple days a week in my early 20’s.. had no idea that existed under it
I knew about the labyrinth under Fed Square, keep missing out on the Melbourne Open House occasions when they have it open. Have never seen it in any videos, so it's great to finally see it. I did not know that they used it to regulate the temperature in the atrium, thought it was only used for the closed in parts of Fed Square.
I think Coolth is the groaning noise you make when you realise the video is only in 480p.
I’ll pay that.
It seems like some effort went into making this video... so why is it 480p?
I used to work in the dept. of Premier and Cabinet, and got to walk through that underground area before Fed Square opened. It's hard to show on video just how vase the space is.
Is this maze considered Melbourne's District Cooling System?
This must’ve the first time SateGov Major Projects Dept did something Sensible
what is the usual purpouse for 1.6 km Underground Labyrinths?
Nice engineering. I moved from Melbourne to Sydney... Sydney really is a better quality of life city
Nice video. Only problem is it's only showing as 480p for me.
This reminds me of a computer heat sink and makes me wonder how long it will be until Linus Tech Tips copy this design to do a whole building heat sink project.
Leading cultural and community sites? Where's all the people?
Really interesting!
I think so too!
Coolth story, bro.
No, really.
Brilliant stuff, Julian.
Good idea, but how much CO2 will the concrete produce compared to the energy saving?
Seems a bit strange to intentionally induce frequent temperature oscillations to something you're using as a structural component, right? Concrete does expand and contract a little when it changes temperature, after all.
I would expect that it is in fact not at all structural.
Taking the air off the top of the Yarra is very clever. But there is the potential for even more clever uses. Bodies of water (the larger the better) are terrific heat-sinks. There are a couple of buildings on the edge of Sydney Harbour that run sealed pipes from their HVAC systems in loops out into the edge of the harbour, to stabilise the temperature of their contents. (Look at your nightly weather reports. While the daily/nightly temperatures vary wildly, the ocean temperature is amazing constant ... as is the temperature in deep caves or mines).
But even more bizarre, using heat exchangers to get warmth or coolth, from raw sewage running around a city. (I think Melbourne did this? They were certainly trying to get approval quite a number of years ago).
Sustainability really benefits from thinking way, way 'outside the box'.
Absolutely fascinating!
Was not what I expected but glad I watched.
Hello from Newcastle
Hello, Newcastle! - Glad you enjoyed.