10 | REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT LT McGuinness/VUW: The Living Pā Living Pā a ‘teaching tool’ The Living Pā will stand adjacent to Te Tumu Herenga Waka on Kelburn Parade, and the two spaces will be connected by panels of glass. T T Kelly Deeks • Scaffolding • Falsework / Propping • Formwork & Shoring • Grandstand Seating & Staging 2100mm Leadership - Zero Harm - Best Practices • tana.nz • 0800 TANA 4U With over 20 years experience in the brick, block laying and concrete trade, we provide workmanship second-to-none in both the domestic & commercial markets. In need of a retaining wall, a concrete pad, a new garage, brick repairs or an outdoor fireplace? Look no further! Proud to work alongside LT McGuinness Ltd. 021 944 256 | foundationbricksandblocks@gmail.com | The redevelopment of Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington’s marae is a vision much greater than bricks and mortar, or timber and screws in this case. It proposes to be New Zealand’s third fully certified Living Building, which is considered internationally to be the built environment’s most stringent performance standard. When the wharenui, Te Tumu Herenga Waka, opened in 1986, it was already a trailblazer. It was the first marae to be opened in a university in New Zealand, and was built by staff, students, and the wider community. The Living Pā will stand adjacent to Te Tumu Herenga Waka on Kelburn Parade, and the two spaces will be connected by panels of glass. As part of the Living Building Challenge, the Living Pā will be judged against the highest sustainability rating in the world. It must generate all of its own energy, capture and cycle all of its own water, be entirely carbon neutral, and use only non-toxic materials that cause no harm to the environment and people. The certification process will only begin once the Living Pā has been continuously occupied for two years. Co-project manager of the Living Pā Rhonda Thomson says this is not only a living building, but also a talking building. “It’s a teaching tool,” she says. “This building is going to transform the way we realise our values and culture by drawing together mātauranga Māori and sustainability practices. We are not designing a living building for best practice purposes, we are designing a flagship that will legitimately raise the bar and redefine what is possible.” The Living Building Challenge is organised into seven performance areas - place, water, energy, health and happiness, materials, equity, and beauty - and the Living Pā hits on each of them. It aims to restore a healthy relationship with nature, operate within the water balance of its place and climate, rely solely on solar income, optimise physical and psychological health, use products that are safe for all species for all time, support an equitable world, and uplift the human spirit with its design. Tūhoe Te Uru Taumatua built the Southern Hemisphere’s first fully certified living building, Te Kura Whare, in 2017. Te Wānanga o Raukawa has recently opened a Living Building Challenge project at its Ōtaki campus. “This Living Building Challenge standard is being led by Māori in New Zealand,” Rhonda says. “It is the best building system available to capture Māori concepts such as kaitiakitanga. It’s able to lean into Māori perspectives, values, and beliefs, and a relational approach to the natural world.” She says the project’s design and construction team are working in a highly integrated manner to achieve something significantly good across a wide range of social, cultural, and environmental imperatives. The main contractor LT McGuinness is doing some amazing work to achieve strict targets around waste and repurposing. The team on site are organising waste into five separate skips, repurposing materials and calling on contacts to see whether they can reuse items on other projects. “It’s so exciting to see this happening on site. LT McGuinness are cementing their waste management capabilities in the Living Building space and taking them on to their next jobs. Spreading knowledge outwards and the pulse it sets off is what the Living Pā is conceptualised to do and that is major.” The Living Pā is set to open in the second half of 2024.
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