A living heritage precinct with constantly changing use presents complex structural demands at the Abbotsford Convent, where Partridge provided structural assessments for event and adaptive reuse scenarios. The State Heritage-listed former convent now operates as a major arts and cultural hub in Melbourne, with temporary installations introducing loads never envisaged in the original fabric. We assessed original wrought iron beams with no standardised material properties using detailed inspection, conservative capacity assumptions, and where required, targeted testing. Event-specific load cases, including dynamic effects, are developed and checked against existing structural capacity, with critical focus on connections and load paths. Where limitations arise, we implement reversible temporary works and load management strategies to enable safe events without altering the heritage fabric.
