Overview
Entrant:
Jasmax
Category:
07. Sustainable Development Award
Photographed by:
Jason Mann, Renée Williamson (site during construction)
Key team members:
Arthouse Architects - Renée Williamson, Rachel Dodd, Jonathan Callaghan
Sheppard & Rout - Jasper van der Lingen, Ella van der Lingen
Structural & Building Services - Beca
Acoustics - Marshall Day
Communications - Torque IP
Tukutuku is a four-storey learning facility forming the social and academic heart of AUT University's North Campus in Auckland. Delivered as part of a campus revitalisation, the project combines the adaptive reuse of the existing 50-year-old AF building with a new mass timber structure (AZ building), unified by a soaring atrium.
As New Zealand's most energy-efficient university, AUT set an ambitious brief: to deliver its most sustainable building to date. Timber was selected as the primary structural material following rigorous analysis comparing embodied carbon across structural systems. Independent E-tool verification demonstrated that the combined mass timber structure and adaptive reuse solution achieves 475kgCO₂/m²/50 years – half the embodied carbon of a typical new construction using steel or concrete, and exceeding the LETI 'A standard' target of 530kgCO₂e/m²/60 years. Upfront emissions of just 185 kgCO₂/m² represent one-third of current industry norms.
One of Australasia's largest post-tensioned engineered timber structures, Tukutuku proves that timber can deliver the structural performance and seismic resilience traditionally associated with steel and concrete, while dramatically reducing carbon impact. This removes key barriers to mass timber adoption in New Zealand’s seismic context and establishes a replicable low carbon model for the tertiary sector’s ageing campus portfolios.
Timber also delivered tangible construction, cost and programme benefits. The lightweight timber structure enabled the use of economical raft foundations on poor sedimentary soils, eliminating the need for deep piling and significantly reducing excavation, associated embodied carbon, cost and construction time. Completed on time and on budget, Tukutuku demonstrates that sustainable material choices can enhance, rather than compromise, project viability.
A systems thinking approach extended the value of timber beyond structure alone. The lightweight frame enabled an efficient displacement HVAC system (the most energy-efficient solution short of natural ventilation) – targeting 55 kWh/m²/year, outperforming AUT’s previous best performing building and aligning with LETI/RIBA 2030 operational energy benchmarks.
Circularity was embedded at every scale. The entire 600tonne timber structure – comprising locally sourced radiata pine LVL, post-tensioned beams and columns machined by Auckland's Timberlab, and Nelson-manufactured Potius Double T floors – is bolted and screwed, allowing full disassembly and component reuse at end-of-life. This design for deconstruction approach ensures materials retain value beyond the building’s life. Timber was sourced from sustainably grown Northland forests, processed domestically to minimise transport emissions and support regional economies. Construction waste diversion reached 90%, saving 40% in disposal costs.
Internally, exposed unfinished LVL eliminates maintenance while celebrating the craft and warmth of timber, creating a biophilic learning environment that supports wellbeing and connection to nature – an expression of timber’s cultural and environmental resonance in Aotearoa.
Timber species/applications: