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PROJECT REPORT: SUSTAINABLE BUILDING DESIGN
“from day one,” say the architects. In order to achieve this, besides the inherent benefits of the use of timber itself, the building utilises low energy lighting and low water usage sanitary fittings, which, together with the mixed mode ventilation system, means the building has a predicted energy usage of 80 kWh/m2/year, and water usage of 12.6 litres per person per day. It also has a 34% reduction in ‘operational impacts’ when compared to equivalent ‘baseline’ reference building.
The positive reception is “a recognition of the outward thinking to the building and its contribution and invitation to community”
buildings, but instead can act more like trees where strength follows the continuous grain of the wood,” explains Dr Smith. “With this simple shift in thinking,” he continues, “the structural size of the timber has been reduced by around three quarters.” As a further example of innovation, the timber structural nodes not only transfer loads and hold a ‘seismic fuse’ which, if an earthquake occurs, will yield to be replaced afterwards. Besides cost efficiencies, the smaller nature of the structure also means that the timber was easier to handle, transport, and sustainably resource, and ultimately change or re-use.
Prefabrication was reportedly key to the realisation of this project, with the LVL diagrids assembled from a limited number of repeating, multi storey components, to maximise the potential of repetition, and simplify both fabrication and site erection. In the future, Smith hopes that such techniques will allow an increasing number of buildings to be built using the material, which he says is useful not just to a small, isolated country like New Zealand – where new machines and construction materials like steel and concrete usually come via boat – but to larger countries where efforts to store carbon in buildings often is thought of in larger and larger components, befitting the ‘mass’ timber name. He sums up the approach: “Sustainability does not mean more, it means less.”
Meeting net zero While the building isn’t entirely constructed of timber – it has a concrete ring beam foundation for geothermal reasons, and a perimeter curtain wall glazing system – the building was nonetheless carbon neutral
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In order to ensure this level of sustainability, the team employed the ETool system to measure their embodied carbon – how much carbon is released, and how much is stored in the making of the building. The building achieved zero embodied carbon at the end of construction, storing as much carbon as has been released through the raw material mining, manufacturing, transportation, and installation, and without any offsetting of carbon credits.
According to the architects, whole life carbon usage of the building (over the next 60 years) will be around two thirds of those of current 2020 RIBA reference building targets The building sequesters 530,488 kg of carbon, or around 300 kg of carbon per square metre, and stores approximately 415 tonnes of ‘carbon dioxide equivalent’ (C02-e) in just its primary timber structure for the life of the building – the latter being comparable to the emissions of 160 flights around the world. As such, Smith hails the building as “ahead of its time,” noting that the 454 m3 of structural timber used is regrown “every 35 minutes” in New Zealand.
Looking forwards Looking back on the project, Smith reflects that Te Whare Nui o Tuteata represents “more than 10 years of advancement and sophistication in the way timber structural buildings are not just put together but conceptualised.” He hails the project as well as bringing benefits to future generations, it “encourages others to think harder about what timber is good at, and how timber buildings might be better prefabricated and pieced together.” Smith adds that being such a timber showcase makes it a “globally significant scientific demonstration of how we might build tomorrow.” He says it’s a “real prototype, rather than just a possibility,” as New Zealand works towards zero carbon in 2050. g
ADF MAY 2022
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