Innovation Award

This award recognises that transformation is happening in our sector and is awarded to the project that has taken an innovative approach and achieved a positive outcome. Innovation could be in the field of process, design, construction, materials or technology
H T M L Code
Innovation Award

Project: Nelson Airport Terminal

Entrant

Naylor Love Canterbury Ltd

Project Partners

Aesculus Project Management (Project Management), bbd (Cost Consultant), Dunning Thornton Consultants (Engineer), eCubed Ltd (Engineer), Fulton Hogan (Construction Company), Gibbons (Construction Company), Studio Pacific Architecture (Architect/Designer)

Owned By

Nelson Airport Ltd

Nelson Airport is New Zealand’s fifth busiest regional airport and is in the process of a significant redevelopment. The chosen materials and unique roof design presented the design and construction team with a huge challenge. It required a meticulous plan that involved fabricating and installing the 36 roof triangles with minimal tolerance. This was all while maintaining acoustics, weather tightness and overall aesthetic. A staged construction was necessary to ensure the original terminal could be used while the first stage was being built. This required repeat work by all trades, but also provided a great opportunity for efficiencies to be refined.

Judges comments

This building features a timber frame with an innovative seismic design allowing the structure to absorb seismic forces with the minimum of long-term damage. The roof was constructed in gigantic sections in a vacant hanger, and transferred to position via the taxiway, in between aircraft movements at one of the busiest regional airports. This prefabrication process demanded exacting dimensional accuracy, but allowed for faster construction and tighter quality control than might otherwise have been possible. Overall, an extraordinary effort by an extraordinary team.