The third issue of our Thought Series is out! From Resistance to Resilience, develops Adaptive Urbanism further by introducing some practical tools to address Climate Change issues such as the coastal protection from storm surges, reduction of surface water run-off and water purification. It demonstrates that the variety of “soft” approaches can address many issues simultaneously. A number of case studies exemplify how resilience can be applied to metropolises around the world and how local knowledge can be combined with a natural, global strategy to develop reinvigorated, safer coastal cities.

For more information please contact: Bernd Gundermann at +64 9 914 6093 or bgundermann@stephensonturner.com

This third issue of our Thought Series, From Resistance to Resilience, develops Adaptive Urbanism further by introducing some practical tools to address Climate Change issues such as the coastal protection from storm surges, reduction of surface water run-off and water purification. It demonstrates that the variety of “soft” approaches can address many issues simultaneously. 

Congratulations to Matt Kinsey who is a finalist in the Interior Awards' Emerging Designer category! As a specialised interior designer he is passionate about creating internal environments which promote health and well-being for building occupants and, of course, great aesthetical design.

Matt has worked on a number of award-winning designs including S&T's 6 Star Green Star Design Studio (which was the overall winner in the Interior Awards in 2012) and MPI's Multipurpose Building in Wallaceville. He also led the recently completed office fitout for Microsoft in Wellington.

He is also a very keen sustainable designer and is a Green Star Accredited Professional. and this interest has taken him down an unexpected path to the large-scale installation of photovoltaic’s in remote countries in the world. Matt is currently the architectural design lead of the New Zealand-based design team (with Keith Johnston and Michael Warwick of S&T Engineers) installing 1 Mega Watt photovoltaic arrays in Bamyan, Afghanistan.

The Autumn 2013 issue of Outlines, our newsletter. Stories include

• Kahurangi School Merger
• Marina View School Weathertightness Project
• Bamyan Solar Energy Project, Afghanistan
• Rethinking Workspaces Booklet
• Raroa Road Commercial Refurbishment
• Landcare Research's new Pathogen Laboratory
• Hutt Valley High School's Seismic Restrengthening
• Aotea Centre Weathertightness Project

Adaptive Urbanism discusses urban response strategies that - when applied early - can lead to resilient and better living environments for mankind and nature.

Rethinking Workspaces: How work environments affect your people, your brand, and your bottom line.

This booklet puts forward some very practical ways that you can implement simple changes in your workspace environment to unleash the full potential of your team.

Stephenson&Turner, along with The Edge, is leading a large-scale renewal of the external building surfaces of one of Auckland’s most recognisable buildings. The Aotea Centre has been an integral part of the City’s landscape since the early 1990’s, but age and end-of-life materials have recently caused wide-spread water ingress issues.

Code compliance has required substantially new design work to achieve the brief of a long-term, holistic approach to the whole building envelope.

To this end S&T are not only addressing the obvious technical aspects to the absolute best practice, but are helping to bring the existing building into the 21st Century and ensure it retains the title of New Zealand’s premier performance arts centre.

A 1980s Hutt City office building with “good bones” is getting a bit of a facelift. The refurbishment to this mixed-use building follows a successfully-completed, smaller similar project in the area for the same client.

Early discussions with Hutt City Council planners highlighted the District Plan objectives to sustain the area’s vitality and vibrancy, and to increase the mix and diversity of activities to allow an increase in the number of people living, working and visting the area. S&T’s proposal for a mix of commercial and residential led to a straight-forward resource consent process.

Design work is currently being completed for tendering and consent for the basebuild upgrade for two levels of commercial and an upper level of residential. All work is largely within the existing building envelope, but with the addition of new cladding, balconies and active solar screening at the upper level to differentiate the residential from the commercial activities.

S&T’s work  incorporates fitout works for a readily accessible medical centre on the first floor and for the separate unit-titled apartments on the second floor with their outlook to the western hills. Carparking and a small retail function at ground complements both the commercial and residential activities.

Extensive building survey work has been completed to understand any shortfalls on code compliance, seismic status and capacity for the intended new uses. The opportunity provided here allows existing and sound building stock to be refreshed and rejuvenated and to allow occupation 24/7, satisfying both the local authority urban objectives and maximising client expectations.

When the community of Rakaia, in South Canterbury, looked for a new home for its local community and sportspeople they put together a challenging brief to help them select a suitable design team.  S&T responded with an approach that enabled the Rakaia community to further refine its brief and fundraise in a manner that they were comfortable with.  This empathic approach looked beyond design and at the challenges of building a significant building, which are typically faced by any community group.

This approach struck a chord with the Sports Rakaia team and they selected S&T from a number of the country’s best sports facility designers.

The first stage of this project is now well underway with the pulling together of a concept that both solves the community’s needs and allows them to go into their next phase of fundraising. The new building includes a competition level sports hall, clubrooms and community spaces while also providing support facilities to the sportfields of the Rakaia Domain. To enable a more flexible facility the design also makes use of an adjacent squash club facility, allowing improvements to this building as well as additional community space for the new one.

To help the Sports Rakaia team best understand how they would likely operate their new facility, our designers visited a number of recent and relevant facilities in the South Island.  This allowed everyone, both our clients and our designers, to focus on what will work and not work for the specific needs of Rakaia and quickly come up with a building that will work well for them.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

“The people we are working with are both inspirational and passionate. Things we really love when working with community groups” - Dennis Chippindale, Architect and Principal

There is hope on the horizon in the battle against invasive weeds and destructive plant pathogens (diseases) attacking New Zealand’s crops and native flora. Opened in November 2012, a new state-of-the-art plant pathogen containment facility is providing a boost to Landcare Research’s weed biocontrol programmes.

As the first and only one of its kind in New Zealand, researchers previously relied on overseas facilities and collaborators to undertake trial work involving plant pathogens. This was not only inconvenient, but incredibly slow and not a viable long-term option - especially when time is of the essence in the race to protect our precious native flora.

“As well as weed biocontrol studies the facility will also be suitable for safely undertaking research into invasive plant pathogens that pose a threat to native flora and to crop plants. These include the PTA pathogen causing Kauri dieback, and the Psa bacterium devastating kiwifruit,” says scientist Stan Bellgard, who worked closely with S&T’s designers and engineers in the design of the facility.

The major challenge for designers was to create a facility that met a high level of containment (PC2+ and PS2+). Ensuring that no pathogens or weeds escape the building requires specialised security features. This includes HEPA filters (to clean the air circulating in the glasshouses and laboratories), sterilisation (using heat treatment) of all waste water before it joins regular waste water, and the ability to autoclave all solid-waste material and packaging before it is removed from the facility.

One of the key features of the facility is the ability to grow plants in sealed glasshouses that meet a high level of safety and security of containment and provide natural light. About a third of the building is taken up by four plant growth rooms.

“Providing natural light is very important so that growing conditions match those expected in the field, helping to maintain healthy host plants. Rust fungi, for example, often need natural light cycles to sporulate (release spores) and remain viable,” says scientist Sarah Dodd who will manage the facility.

Other features include:

• an air-locked entrance room contains an insect light trap, which operates continuously.
• a changing room, used for dressing into and out of containment clothing, as well as a decontamination shower.
• wet and dry laboratories
• individual air-conditioning systems for each of the plant growth rooms and laboratories
• controlled air flow to ensure the containment of airborne spores and insects within the facility and that there is no cross-contamination between plant growth rooms.
• careful detaling and construction of all walls, ceilings, light fittings and floors so that they are completely sealed and easily decontaminated
• BMS software controls throughout the whole building maintaining temperature, pressure and oxygen levels
• a blast-resistant ethanol room (chiller) is also BMS controlled and contains an alarm system to warn of a break down or security breach.  It also prevents entry in the event that ethanol levels are too high and releases ethanol during a six minute wait to make it safe.

Landcare Research will not be the only group to enjoy the benefits of this new facility. Other research organisations have shown an interest in using the building and access will be made available, where possible, to the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI), other CRIs, universities, overseas research institutes, businesses, and private individuals. The building can also be used for research on insect pests.

The Beever Plant Pathogen Containment Facility was opened on 1 November 2012 in Auckland and is named in honour of the late Dr Ross Beever and his wife Dr Jessica Beever who have made significant contributions to fungal taxonomy and genetics, plant pathology, botany, and to conservation of New Zealand’s flora and fungi.

For more information on this or similar S&T projects, please contact Pierre Van Tonder. To learn more about how you can help prevent the spread of kauri dieback, please visit www.kauridieback.co.nz.

This project included six classrooms and a library design utilising MLE Guidelines and weather-tightness requirements. The existing classroom block was a leaky building made up of six independent cells; dimly lit, uninviting washroom facilities; and a neglected courtyard flanked by a narrow, unfriendly verandah.

S&T recycled the concrete slab, confining the project to the same size footprint as the previous building but with a vastly improved use of space. The new classrooms are friendly and inviting, with a sense of community energy. There is plenty of daylight, fresh air, and colour, open planned to enable classrooms to be joined or acoustically separate as needed. The glass doors give visibility and connection that allows teachers to supervise multiple spaces.  Flow between classrooms and courtyard is encouraged with large doors, full height windows, and leveled access; the courtyard improved to an interesting and diverse miniature landscape that can accommodate different activities – an ‘outdoor classroom’. 

Everything is carefully and consistently proportioned, designed for kids to take ownership of the space and – S&T’s ultimate goal – for them to enjoy coming to school.

A school merger on the Miramar Peninsula will provide a modern learning environment for 150 primary school students in Wellington. Kahurangi School, meaning “prized” or “precious” in Maori, merges two existing schools, Strathmore Community School and Miramar South School on the Strathmore site.

S&T has led the creation of a new master plan for the school as well as the design of a modern school facility on the site, utilising the existing buildings. The plan proposes better connections to the surrounding community, improved traffic management and a possible new community centre/covered indoor pool facility to replace the current, aging outdoor pool.

The planning and design process has involved extensive consultation with the staff and communities of both schools. The first stage of the project involved a full condition study of the existing school facilities. The S&T team looked at the physical condition of the buildings and their seismic capacity, while also surveying the building services throughout the school and its site infrastructure.

One of the challenges of the project has been determining how to merge two schools, both with long histories, into one which both recognises their individual pasts and also creates a new single identity for the future. The Ministry of Education has indicated more mergers of this kind will likely follow in other cities in New Zealand, particularly Christchurch, as student numbers drop in some areas. The success of this merger will create a model for future schools around the country to follow.

While the design brings the school “into the 21st Century,” it has been a challenge to both respect the heritage of the school buildings and also ensure they meet new seismic requirements. As architect Murray Robertson explains: “A key part of modern learning environments, in contrast to the seismic requirements, is opening up the traditional boxed-in classroom, creating transparency and connections between adjacent spaces. Balancing the two has required careful planning and consideration.”

The other key challenge was creating something visibly new that gives the school a new identity while reusing the existing building. Part of this identity is representing the surrounding diverse communities (which have strong Pasifika, Maori, and Asian populations) through colour, the entry canopy forms and painted artwork in the playground which all have a Pasifika theme.

The project has the opportunity to make a significant impact on the lives of its pupils. In a Decile 2 community it’s uncommon for the students to have internet at home and so the school wants to open their library to the whole community, where computers and the internet can be accessed. The library, therefore, will be the front face of the school, with full glazing to the street creating an inviting and welcoming atmosphere.

The proposed new indoor pool also has significant support from the Council. They hope to create a swim-centre for children throughout the Miramar Peninsula.

School began at the Miramar site on February 4 for term one, while construction is being undertaken on the permanent Strathmore site - ready for term three.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“We all can’t wait for our school to be completed. Our new school environment is going to further support our children to becoming confident and connected to the modern world. Access to Information Technology is a real priority for our community and this new school is about to deliver it – it’s going to be like Christmas for us all” - Kyran Smith, Principal

“Creating one large, full primary school will strengthen education and provide stability for children and their families in the area.” - Hekia Parata, Minister of Education

Bamyan, ‘The Place of Shining Light’, is an apt description for the remote province in Afghanistan where one of the largest off-grid power systems in the world is currently being constructed. 

Working with Sustainable Energy Services International (SESI), world leaders in the field of renewable energy technology, S&T have designed and are constructing five solar power farms, making a sustainable power supply (totalling more than one MegaWatt) available to a town currently without electricity. The project is part of the ongoing New Zealand Aid Programme to assist rural economic development, education and health, and community safety and justice in Afghanistan.  Once complete the solar plant will improve economic opportunities across the region. 

The New Zealand team is working with 15 trained Afghan engineers and about 40 tradesmen and labourers from surrounding Afghan villages. 

The challenges to this project are many.  Although one of the safest provinces, Bamyan is still far from stable, as shown by recent fatalities in our armed forces.  It also requires an understanding of political and community concerns and the ability to consult with the local community. Harsh climatic conditions means that construction time is limited - the ground in this high altitude area freezes and does not thaw out until spring.  This, together with the complicated logistics of delivering imported materials to this land-locked country, has ensured our team have had their hands full! 

The project showcases New Zealand as a world leader in new technology, with the ability to provide large-scale sustainable energy projects. As Tony Woods, Director of SESI, explains: “It puts us right up there internationally and able to deliver large scale off-grid systems in other parts of the world.”

The project is due for completion by the end of 2013.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Energy is a top priority for Afghanistan’s development and the government of Bamyan is welcoming this initiative to bring power to the province....We are pleased to be able to provide a system that will reliably supply power to about 2500 homes, businesses, and government buildings. This project is as much about building a utility and training staff as it is about constructing a reliable energy facility. The system must be sustainable in the long term...” - Murray McCully, Foreign Affairs Minister

“It is an opportunity to bring electricity to thousands of Afghan people who currently live without it. The potential to improve their lives is huge. This will have a positive impact on the local standard of living, promote economic activity and create a model for a power utility that can be replicated elsewhere in Afghanistan.  It’s the start of a bright, sustainable future.” - Tony Woods, Director SESI

Wishing everybody a very happy and safe holiday season.

Our office will be closed from December 21 through January 14.

Looking forward to 2013!

We are constantly surprised by the unexpected talents that emerge from within our team. A couple of weeks ago we saw some unique artistic skills showcased in our Amp the Ampersand Competition.

In addition to this we can now say we have award-winning rug designers and t-shirt designers on staff!

Alby Yap won People’s choice Award in the Designer Rugs Evolve Awards 2012. His design “Story Tumber” beat out some tough competition. With over 450 submissions from Australian and New Zealand interior design professionals, 25 were selected as short listed finalists. Each shortlisted design had the opportunity to win the People’s Choice award voted by industry and the general public via the Designer Rugs Facebook page. Over 3000 votes were cast. This is a great achievement. Well done, Alby!

Nathan Corbett won two awards at the First Annual Wellington T-Shirt Designers Market on Saturday 15 December! His design “Girl and Yellowbird” won the “Best Women’s Multi-colour print” and he also won “Best in Show Overall” You can see more of his work on his Facebook Page. (We won’t mention that Nate can also rock it on his guitar – he and his band provided the musical entertainment at S&T’s Wellington Christmas bash this year!)

The second booklet in our S&T Thought Series is now out! The booklet is titled “Rethinking Workspaces: How work environments affect your people, your brand, and your bottom line.” Click here to download a free copy.

The booklet has emerged from our deep belief at S&T that workspace design involves creating environments where people can thrive.

S&T Principal, Bernd Gundermann, explains: “We see a lot of companies that have huge potential to improve their bottom line by invigorating their staff and employees by redesigning their workspace environments.  Office environments today are people-centred. It is not about functionality only... they must work, sure, but the main focus should be enabling your people to feel good in these spaces, that they enjoy being there and love to come to work in the mornings.”

Creating these people-centred work environments is so much more than just choosing furniture and fixtures – it’s about aligning your physical workspace to the goals and aspirations of your organisation.

This booklet puts forward some very practical ways that you can implement changes – some even as simple as adding plants into your workspace or changing the lighting – to unleash the full potential of your team.

We would be happy to talk to you more and answer any questions you might have. For more information, please contact Bernd Gundermann at bgundermann@stephensonturner.com or call +64 9 914 6093.

We look forward hearing from you!

Click here to download the booklet.

Next year Paris will celebrate the 850th anniversary of its cathedral Notre Dame, beginning today with a scientific conference. On 23 March 2013 a new set of nine bells will ring for the first time since the mediaeval one was destroyed in the French Revolution. The cathedral’s famous treasury has been redeveloped following Eugène Viollet-le-Duc's concepts of the 19th century. Another highlight visiting the church at night is its new lighting, which respects former installations and adds another layer of subtle light that emphasises the precious architecture of the interior. An aural delight will be available too as the Grand Organ with some 12,000 pipes have been restored. The organ recitals will resume in January. So, if you’re heading for Paris over the summer break, don’t miss out on visiting Notre Dame. For more information on special events of the jubilee year click here for general enquiry on Notre Dame here.

To be honest, when I first visited Notre Dame in Paris, aged 20, just after having finished my compulsory military service and accordingly starving for culture, I was underwhelmed. Compared with Chartres and Reims, the Parisian sister seemed to me fairly reserved. It was me, who needed to grow towards it. Looking at the famous west facade today I can sense the intellectual climate that inspired it. Around the year 1100 Paris already was the established centre of Europe’s scholarship. The ”intellectual star” of the twelfth century, Abélard, had been taught at Notre Dame cathedral school. He later, after his affair with Héloïse, had his famous rhetorical battle with Bernard de Clairvaux, arguing about Abélard's rationalist enquiry and the fervent faith of the latter, close by at the school of Mount St. Genevieve. By the year 1200 the university of Paris was exempt from worldly power being only subdued to ecclesial jurisdiction. Later the university hosted teachers such as Albert the Great, who made Aristotle accessible to Christianity, and his scholar Thomas Aquinas. By 1229, when the works on the west facade of Notre Dame were completed, the Pope (also an alumnus) intervened in a fight between the Church, secular leaders and the students confirming the university’s independence from local jurisdiction and praising the school by stating "Paris is the mother of the sciences, is another Cariath-Sepher, city of letters”.

I think the well-balanced, classic appearance of Notre Dame reflects this scholarly background. It radiates both faith and doubt; prayer and thought. Opus Francigenum, the French style of mason mastery, was not invented in Paris though. This happened a few kilometres north at the monastery of Saint Denis, where Abbot Suger created the perfect vessel for the new expression of faith, basically a mystery of continuously coloured light, through which ever-lasting processions and services were heightened. Architectonically this was made possible through the complementary use of ribbed vaults and buttresses, which later – at Notre Dame – became “flying buttresses. Those constructive novelties represented the materialised intellectual discourse at this time only possible around Paris.

However, Notre Dame always represented the French nation as well. Thus the building became target during the riots of the French revolution 1789. None of the statues we see today populating its exterior is original. It was the architect Viollet-le-Duc who reconstructed the building. His research boosted Gothic Revival architecture in the 19th century, examining both the structure and construction in a positivist scientific sense, leading to the widespread view that Gothic was the archetype of modern construction. This interpretation has been overcome only recently, when the science of art embarked on a new way to see the Gothic cathedral as an integral work of art and materialised mysticism.

-          Posted December 12, 2012

Images taken from: G. Binding, Was ist Gotik?, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt, 2000

Congratulations to Emily Batchelor - the winner of the 2012 Stephenson&Turner Prize at the Victoria University of Wellington. The annual scholarship is awarded to the student who, in S&T’s opinion, shows the best holistic integration of architecture with building services engineering in their work.

Emily has just completed the Bachelor of Architectural Studies, as well as a Bachelor of Building Science degree which she pursued concurrently, and her fourth year of study in the Masters of Architecture programme. 2013 will be her final year for study in the Masters of Architecture at Victoria University.

Her project titled “Knowing Your Neighbour” aims to rekindle a sense of community among medium-density dwellers in Wellington's CBD. It is a conceptual idea for a 25m-high residential building for 108 Cuba Street. By sharing common facilities, opening views between apartments, and creating breakout points for meeting space, her project seeks to engage residents with their neighbours and residents with the public realm.

“I am truly appreciative, and was humbled to be the recipient. The award has a great impact for me in many regards. The financial benefit will be a great help towards completing my studies next year, and the prestige of the award is of equal value. It is an admirable achievement to have gained, and will be a great addition to my CV. I am also very grateful for the affiliation it has given me with Stephenson and Turner...” - Emily

Click on the gallery to see more of her work!

Friday evening saw the prizegiving for our inaugural Amp the Ampersand Competition at S&T. The team was challenged to create any ampersand-inspired artwork in whatever form - to keep our creative juices flowing as a team while also having a bit of fun along the way.

After a few weeks of hype created by the organizing committee it was really impressive to see unexpected hidden artistic talents emerge from within our team!

The project also encouraged some internal team collaboration. The Team Prize was won by the Wellington combo of Nate Corbett, Shea Treacy, James McCoy and Lianne Beckett for their amazingly constructed Lego Ampersand.

The People’s Choice Award went to Byron Peard for his whimsical ampersand under "construction." 

First, Second and Third Prizes went to Catherine Hugo, Raj Hira and James Maddison respectively. James Maddison’s festive “splatter” submission can be seen on S&T’s 2012 company Christmas cards.

Well done to all who submitted and special thanks to Ashley Allen of Walker Architects and Eduardo Gutierrez Perez from Oktobor Animation Studio who gave their time to judge the event. 

Can’t wait till next year! And don't forget to check out the gallery to see more submissions.

On November 1 - a day after hurricane Sandy had hit the east cost of the United States - a graphic was published that visually summarised the financial impact of natural disasters in the United States since 1980. The source was unsuspicious of being environmentally alarming, Bloomberg Businessweek. It stated that      

• The number of those disasters in the first half of this period had doubled, from 46 in 1980-96 to 90 in 1996-2012.
• There were 136 weather/climate related disasters since 1980 causing damages/costs exceeding USD 1 billion.
• The total standardised losses for the 136 events were USD 897 billion.

According to the graph hurricane Katrina in 2005 has been the worst so far causing damage/costs of USD 146 billion. Hurricane Sandy, a few weeks ago is estimated around USD 50 billion.

Swiss Re stated on March 28 economic losses of USD 370 billion from natural catastrophes and man-made disasters in 2011. Within this sum the flooding in Thailand caused the highest insured losses ever for a single flood event, at USD 12 billion. The floods in Australia claimed additional USD 2 billion.

What do we learn from those facts?

It is not by accident that re-insurances have invested heavily in research on Climate Change since the 1970s. Scientists have long been stating that, due to Climate Change, natural catastrophes will increase in both intensity and frequency. The Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) issued a graph that illustrates the effect of changes in atmospheric temperature distribution to the weather. I showed this graph when recently speaking at the International Cities, Town Centres & Communities (ICTC) conference 2012 in Gold Coast, Australia, introducing soft engineered response options to increase coastal resilience. The resonance was very positive as Queensland had been haunted by perils in recent years, causing insured losses to Swiss-Re of AUD 4.5 billion.

These are the costs, yet only those re-ensured with Swiss Re, but undeniable facts about the costs of natural disasters. For most scientists around the world there is evidence that those increasingly powerful natural disasters are connected to Climate Change initiated by humans. But what about the normal people in the streets? Do they agree with the scientists? To me, that was a bitter learning, reading the comments to the article in the Bloomberg post, as it showed again how wide-spread the denial of Climate Change is in the United States, even among those who read Bloomberg Businessweek. At the end this could be the worst catastrophe of all: the disaster of denial.

We at Stephenson&Turner, however, continue our contribution to the development of smart resilience to sea-level rise. Beside updating our visitors about new findings related to New Zealand here on our webside, Bernd Gundermann, who is Expert Reviewer of the next IPCC Assessment Report on Climate Change, is being connected to scientists in New Zealand and overseas to help preparing coastal cities for the impact of the rising sea. You can download our booklet on Adaptive Urbanism here.

- Posted November 16, 2012