This addition to the Te Wānanga O Raukawa campus at Otaki includes the student hub, library, a tiered 160 seat lecture theatre with whakairo, and an administration and student support area (including archive). The project included landscaped outdoor spaces around the building, including a forecourt to the east, a pedestrian ‘street’ to the north, and internal courtyard.
The building was designed with high expectations of sustainability using the Living Building Challenge as a guide to materials selections and servicing requirements.
Our design included a mixed-mode conditioning strategy throughout the building (excluding the archive). The lecture theatre was conditioned using a displacement system under the seats with demand-controlled ventilation based on occupancy to reduce energy consumption.
Rainwater is collected on site and used for non-potable uses such as irrigation and toilet flushing.