2021 New Zealand Architecture Awards Winner
SCION Innovation Hub - Te Whare Nui o Tuteata
In creating this striking new public interface and showcase for timber technology, the architects have successfully embraced their client’s uncompromising desire to maximise the use of wood, resulting in benchmark-setting innovation in timber construction. Formed as a patterned glass box façade that references the adjacent Whakarewarewa forest canopy and layered over a beautifully articulated timber framework to deliver dappled light into the interior, the generous open core of this Crown research building shapes an interconnected structure with a welcoming heart. Extensive use of sustainably grown, local timber has enabled the building to achieve net-zero embodied carbon emissions, creating a blueprint for the future of timber construction, and a commendable contribution towards Aotearoa New Zealand’s carbon-zero future.
- Practice
- RTA Studio and Irving Smith Architects Ltd
- Category
- Commercial Architecture
- Location
- Waikato/Bay of Plenty
