An ambitious upgrade to VUW’s Te Tumu Herenga Waka marae, this building is a three-story fully timber structure including the wharekai, teaching spaces, staff offices and the university’s sustainability team.
The building has also been designed to meet the Living Building Challenge, arguably one of the most stringent environmental certifications for buildings in the world.
In order to meet the requirements of the Living Building Challenge, the building must produce 105% of its energy consumption on site. Therefore, it has been designed with optimum energy efficiency in order to reduce the load from the 220 kW solar PV rooftop array.
The same philosophy applies with regard to water, with the building's annual water consumption for all uses coming solely from rain collected from the roof. Water consumption is reduced through the use of greywater recycling and vacuum toilets, with wastewater treated on site before being ‘handprinted’ to flush the toilets in a neighbouring building.
The project opened to the public in December 2024.