Overview
Entrant:
Athfield Architects Limited
Category:
11. Public & Community Building Award
Photographed by:
Lightforge, Johannes van Kan
Key team members:
Architect: Athfield Architects
Structural Engineer: Beca
Services Engineer: Beca
Project Manager: Logic Group
Quantity Surveyor: AECOM
Contractor: Naylor Love
Te Whare Whakatere / Ashburton Library and Civic Centre
Te Whare Whakatere, the home of Ashburton’s District Council and Library, is a built expression of local civic identity.
The three-storey timber civic building anchors and activates its prominent corner site adjacent to Ashburton’s main street. Its ‘L’-shaped form shelters a well-used public courtyard from the legendary Canterbury nor’ westerly winds, providing an outdoor space shared by the single-storey Emergency Operations Centre (EOC).
Te Whare Whakatere brings into effect the aspirations of the community as a place where people feel welcome and connected, and that respectfully reflects a connection with the whenua (land) and mana whenua (people of the land). This connection is further enriched through collaboration with artist Fayne Robinson to conceive a cultural foundation of integrated mahi toi.
Timber has been used for the primary gravity and lateral systems and incorporates an innovative post-tensioned timber shear wall system. This selection was made in close consultation with the client and local community to achieve a sustainable, low-carbon development that reflects the agricultural backbone of the district.
Structural engineer Beca’s innovative structural solution utilises post-tensioned rocking cross-laminated timber (CLT) shear walls with laminated veneer lumber (LVL) beams and trusses, overlaid with Potius engineered timber box-beams and a concrete topping. Tectonus DFFJ friction dampers are installed at the wall ends to provide high levels of damping. By combining these systems, building drifts could be controlled to suitable levels.
The distribution of the 2–3m long CLT ‘rocking walls’ across the building footprint, and the location of floor openings for vertical circulation, required close coordination with the structural engineer and careful planning and detailing to achieve the required internal relationships and fire/acoustic requirements. Much of the timber structure is left exposed throughout the building’s interior.
The interior design celebrates the building’s innovative timber structure and mechanical services, exposing these elements wherever possible to facilitate legibility of the building’s structure and systems. The timber structure and expression are continued externally using a glue-laminated timber balcony structure framing the western edge of the adjacent Baring Square.
Materials are selected to be appropriate to the function of the various spaces within the building, with a focus on durability, low maintenance, and hardwearing finishes. Areas of plasterboard are generally minimised.
Beneath the surface, Te Whare Whakatere is an innovative sustainable building, but to the Ashburton District community its success as a civic facility lies in its popularity with local people. The combination of facilities offered, paired with the warm and inviting feel created by its expressed timber structure and interior, has led to Te Whare Whakatere becoming a beating heart of the local community.