Dancing around the dolines | Architecture Now

Even in our image-saturated world, the aerial images of Punakaiki’s new customer centre Punangairi are undeniably spectacular. Nestled throughout the subtropical rainforest of Paparoa Nationwide Park and topped by a dwelling roof, Sheppard & Rout’s design each blends into and contrasts with the pure surrounds of Dolomite Level and the close by Pancake Rocks like a spaceship in camouflage.

The journey to Punakaiki from each the north and the south winds alongside a shoreline of uncooked nature. As you around the bend into Dolomite Level, your first glimpse of Punangairi is a forest of vertical columns set amongst established nīkau, topped with a slim aluminium-clad barge. Peeking excessive of this glistening barge are the hints of the inexperienced roof so seen in aerial images, with nīkau and the bush-clad hills past.

Punangairi — named to appropriate the misspelling of Punakaiki that has perpetuated because the mid-1800s1 — is a customer centre shared by native rūnanga Ngāti Waewae and the Division of Conservation (DOC) to welcome the estimated half-million annual guests to the Pancake Rocks and surrounds. Whereas varied Paparoa Nationwide Park customer centre designs have been ready and shelved over latest many years, this challenge was initiated by Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Waewae, who had a want to host manuhiri and share their tales. Collectively, the companions secured funding from the Provincial Progress Fund in 2018, alongside broader tourism initiatives at Dolomite Level. With this funding in place, the challenge was awarded to Christchurch-based Sheppard & Rout to proceed earlier work undertaken by Boffa Miskell and Tennent Brown Architects.

Jasper van der Lingen of Sheppard & Rout explains that the unique transient referred to as for a 1200m2 constructing sited instead of the considerably smaller unique Paparoa Nationwide Park Customer Centre and increasing over the encircling virgin bush. An adjoining flat garden used extensively by guests was seen as sacrosanct and was to stay untouched.

On a go to to this former customer centre, van der Lingen notes that they had been struck by the view out the back-office window into the crowns of adjoining nīkau. Whereas the customer centre was firmly grounded on the highway edge, this view into fronds and never trunks was the results of the panorama dropping steeply away under the centre right into a doline or tomo. The broader panorama is pitted with these dolines infilled with dense bush.

With a want to minimise the affect on the encircling virgin bush, Sheppard & Rout challenged the briefed necessities and proposed to construct upon the obtainable open and flat house — the treasured garden. Dancing across the edges of the encircling dolines, the curved plan of the customer centre emerged. This transfer responded to pragmatic concerns, reminiscent of enabling the DOC Customer Centre to stay in operation whereas the brand new advanced was constructed and never needing to infill or construct over the deep hollows of the dolines. Additionally, it permits guests to look out into the established bush and perceive higher the panorama they’re inhabiting.

As you enter by way of the steel-clad wind foyer, you’re greeted by the heat of a timber-filled inside, with mild coming into from all sides. The layering of nīkau, exterior colonnade, glulam columns and metal cross-bracing filters the sunshine; above, the gently lifting ceiling of timber dowel supplies a way of shelter and heat. Paving patterns by Kamo Marsh and artworks by Fayne Robinson (Kāti Māmoe, Kai Tahu, Ngāti Apa Ki Te Rā Tō, Ngāti Porou), such because the sweeping stainless-steel pull-handles on the doorway doorways, present some reference to Ngāti Waewae’s involvement within the constructing however the overarching structure shouldn’t be responding to a particular cultural narrative neither is it knowledgeable by co-design.

At a shared counter, each DOC rangers and hosts from the Paparoa Expertise (by Ngāti Waewae) obtain manuhiri, with retail equally shared all through the open flooring plan. The roof lifts to the north, the place a café and upstairs assembly house open out into views of the nīkau crowns, whereas the all-important public bathrooms are positioned to the south and accessible 24 hours a day.

The complete programme was not in a position to be accommodated throughout the curved kind, and so, by way of an air-bridge-type construction, the constructing extends to the east of the principle constructing to an current clearing the place a green-roofed black field containing Paparoa Expertise is housed. Whereas the aim of this house is to elucidate the historical past and geology of the Paparoa Nationwide Park by way of a Ngāti Waewae lens, on the discretion of exhibition designers Gibson Group, home windows alongside the bridge have been coated. This disconnects guests from the precise surrounding context of bush, dolines and manu that might in any other case be seen.

The customer centre is predominantly enclosed with full-height glazing. This extent of glazing may simply have felt misplaced however it’s set behind a colonnade of kinds, wrapping the jap and western faces. This colonnade is shaped of full-height round timber columns, carefully mirroring the proportions and slenderness of the encircling nīkau trunks. Whereas doing little, if something, structurally, these are essential to melt the perimeters of an in any other case quite giant business constructing. Their presence additionally assists within the mitigation of chook strike, notably of the tāiko or Westland petrel, which nests solely within the hills above the customer centre.

From inside the principle house, the dwelling roof is once more glimpsed because it extends over the lowered bridge roof. The inclusion of a dwelling roof is consultant of the conundrum of sustainable buildings. There is no such thing as a questioning its symbolism however the typical advantages of dwelling roofs, reminiscent of discount in heat-island impact and stormwater retention, are of negligible profit in Punangairi’s context. Granted, there might be an argument for extra biodiversity however this can be a rounding error in a 430km2 nationwide park. A lot was made from the constructing’s carbon credentials in earlier press on the project2 however, as structural engineer on the challenge Rob Lane of Lewis Bradford Consulting notes, the inclusion of a dwelling roof is broadly equal to putting in a concrete roof on a single-storey constructing.3 This constructing is near the Alpine Fault and, had this dwelling roof been changed with a light-weight roof, it will, undoubtedly, have had smaller timber roof beams, much less metal cross-bracing and, consequently, decreased global-warming potential.4

This apart, Punangairi is an undoubted success, welcoming and internet hosting manuhiri in Punakaiki in a singular and grounded approach. The partnership between Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Waewae and the Division of Conservation seen here’s a potential instance for the creation of the property that Aotearoa desperately must host ever-increasing vacationer numbers. Sheppard & Rout’s structure, right here, is a strong contextual response, sensitively inserted into an distinctive pure setting. Architecturally, it stands its floor with comparable customer centres internationally.*

*Editor’s remark: The final line of this assessment differs barely from the unique textual content revealed in Structure NZ journal. Sheppard & Rout’s shopper, the Division of Conservation (DOC), is anxious that there might have been a misunderstanding concerning Ngāti Waewae’s involvement all through the design course of. On behalf of DOC, Phil Rossiter says “Ngāti Waewae was deeply concerned from the outset within the co-design of the challenge, having enter and sign-off by way of each design step and iteration over a few years. Ngāti Waewae’s tales and presence begin with the 2 pou both finish of Dolomite Level, proceed with wayfinding, artworks and cultural etchings, are enshrined within the giant kowhaiwhai patterning and constructing title (Punangairi) adorning the entrance of the constructing, and in the end come to life by way of the Paparoa Expertise, a multi-media expression of the cultural and pure tales of Paparoa.”

Rossiter additionally identified that the important thing driver within the challenge’s dwelling roof was panorama (visible) mitigation. “Punangairi sits in an Excellent Pure Panorama and a ‘Scenically-Delicate Zone’ (based mostly on the district plan). Making certain the visible affect of the constructing was mitigated was essential (important for consenting functions), particularly with a nature stroll and viewing platform on the hillside behind that appears down onto and over the buildings, and a dwelling roof utilizing regionally sourced and propagated vegetation was a key mitigation on this. For this reason it’s valued, not due to its symbolism.”

References

1 thepress.co.nz/nz-news/360516822/punakaiki-or-punangairi-name-we-have-all-got-wrong/2 architecturenow.co.nz/articles/dolomite-point-aims-for-double-carbon-zero/3 Together with saturated soil and mature plant development, the inexperienced roof build-up weighs roughly 300kg/m². For context, a light-weight timber-framed membrane roof build-up may weigh roughly 50–75kg/m² and a 150mm-thick metallic deck concrete slab may weigh roughly 250kg/m². 4 LCA evaluation by Sheppard & Rout estimates the constructing’s environmental affect at a good 930kgCO2e/m2 (A1–A5, B1–B5, C1–C4 incl. sequestration). For comparability, the RIBA 2030 Local weather Problem targets non-domestic buildings (new-build workplace) to attain <970kgCO2e/m2 by 2025 and <750kgCO2e/m2 by 2030.