| 37 T T Kim Newth Mass-timber masterpiece The new corporate headquarters is thought to be the largest mass-timber commercial building by volume in Aotearoa. Naylor Love: Fisher & Paykel REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Fisher & Paykel Appliances recently completed global headquarters in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland is adding a new chapter to an iconic brand story that began in the city in 1934. Visually striking and connected to culture and place, the carbon-positive, mass-timber headquarters provides an inspiring and uplifting new home of innovation. The three-storey corporate headquarters building wraps around a wetland oasis and connects to new research, development and testing facilities and a social kitchen for cooking, hosting and dialogue. Car and bike parking with end of trip facilities completes the purpose-built campus. Naylor Love project manager Luke Luijten was a finalist for an innovation award at the recent Building Institute Aotearoa Building People Awards for his work on this outstanding project. Luke was project manager for the mass-timber workplace building working alongside Billy Fulton, and fellow project managers Neil Leisegang (managing the Shed research and development building) and Brad Mongahan (on the Garage parking building). Spanning some 20,000sqm, the new corporate headquarters is thought to be the largest mass-timber commercial building by volume in Aotearoa. Luke says Naylor Love’s early involvement from July 2023 was a key contributor to smooth project delivery. “With such a large timber structure, along with in-ground risks, it was vital to have that early design input,” says Luke. “It gave time for the whole team to properly understand the project and its requirements.” Adopting a prefabrication process provided a fast and efficient construction methodology, with key elements made off-site in an Auckland warehouse. Thousands of timber components were standardised into six prefabricated shapes and delivered to site, enabling rapid installation of 15,500m² of structure in just nine months – “an average build rate of 85m² per day.” A staggering number of screws went into the assembly – 191,000 in total – with 20 percent pre-installed during offsite manufacturing to streamline onsite work. Structural engineers Dunning Thornton, one of New Zealand’s leading consultants for commercial timber construction, were also engaged early. Prototypes began to be made and tested from 2023 ahead of onsite construction from April 2024, followed by ongoing testing and inspections. “This is a completely authentic timber structure with almost no steel connections, just timber-to-timber and that’s very rare in New Zealand.” Fisher & Paykel’s vision was to build a home for people to imagine and create, fuelling the next century of innovation. The design by RTA Studio Ltd perfectly meets that brief: a three-level ribbon of mass timber, touching the ground lightly, with an exposed diagrid providing structure and interior atmosphere, with spaces for focussed work and open atria where bridges, stairways and shared spaces connect floors and functions. True to its carbon-positive aspiration, the building features renewable energy infrastructure. Within the three-level ribbon, the engineered wetland oasis is a striking inclusion supporting F&P’s aspiration to restore the natural landscape and connect people to the whenua. “What I’m most proud about is that through good planning at the start we were able to ensure that risk was well mitigated and managed. This has been a once in a lifetime project – it had everything.” Meanwhile, Naylor Love’s F&P team is also a finalist for the C3 Construction Sustainability Champion Award at Property Council New Zealand’s upcoming 2026 Auckland Property People Awards. ECI Technical Design Manufacture Installation WIGHTALUMINIUM.CO.NZ Unitised Panels Curtain Wall Windows Systems Cladding Structural Glazing PROUD FACADE DELIVERY PARTNER FOR FISHER AND PAYKEL HQ COMMERCIAL FACADE SOLUTIONS
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