Mitre 10 Environmental and Sustainable Award

This award is based on the environmental features of the design and will only be awarded if deserved. It recognises the relationship our man-made buildings have with the environment and responsibility we have as an industry.

H T M L Code
Sustainability Award

Project: The Living Pā

Entrant

LT McGuinness Wellington

Project Partners

335 (Engineer), Dunning Thornton (Structural Engineer), Rider Levett Bucknall (Quantity Surveyor), Tennant Brown (Architect/Designer), The Building Intelligence Group (Project Manager)

Owned By

Te Herenga Waka-Victoria University of Wellington

The Living Pa is one of New Zealand’s most ambitious sustainable buildings, designed to meet the internationally recognised Living Building Challenge. As the centrepiece of Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington’s marae redevelopment, it seamlessly integrates matauranga Maori with leading-edge sustainability, setting a new benchmark for low-carbon construction. The 3,000-square-metre mass timber facility supports the function of the wharenui, with Level 1 dedicated to events, Level 2 housing teaching spaces and the Ngai Tauira Maori Students’ Association, and Level 3 providing offices for the Maori and sustainability faculties. For LT McGuinness, the Living Pa was their first mass timber project and required a rapid learning curve. The building generates 105% of its energy needs, treats all black and grey water on site, and uses a vacuum toilet system to save over 300,000 litres of potable water annually. A strong focus on waste minimisation led to 94% of construction waste being diverted from landfill and the project contributed to LT McGuinness becoming a Toitu-certified net carbon-zero building contractor.

Judges comments

The Living Pa sets a new benchmark for sustainable design in New Zealand. The education facility has been designed to meet the Living Building Challenge, the world's most rigorous environmental building standard. This achievement is reflected in every detail, from a superstructure of mass timber designed for high seismic resilience, to generating all its energy needs through a solar array and managing a black water treatment plant. In addition, the building features a vacuum toilet system and uses only Red List-free building materials. The judges were deeply impressed by the team’s commitment across design and construction to produce an outstanding user experience. This was most evident with the highly complex superstructure, which pushed fabrication limits and led to the development of new processes.