Te Kura Whare: Tuhoe Living Building.
CLIENT | Ngāi Tūhoe
OUR ROLE | Living Building Challenge Delivery
AWARDS AND RECOGNITION |
• International Living Future Institute - Living Building Challenge certification 2017
• Property Council New Zealand - Special Purpose Property Award – Best in Category 2014
• Property Council New Zealand - Green Building Property Award – Best in Category 2014
• New Zealand Institute of Building - NZIOB & Progressive Building Young Achiever Award – Highly Commended (Samantha McGavock) 2014
We are delighted to have supported Tūhoe through the Living Building Challenge (LBC) certification process which led to Te Kura Whare becoming the first fully certified Living Building in the world outside of the USA.
The LBC is the world’s most stringent proven performance standard for buildings. The LBC comprises seven performance areas: site, water, energy, health, materials, equity and beauty. It requires significant effort from the client and project team to design, build and occupy a building which is net zero energy, water and carbon and which excludes toxic materials.
In 2011 Ngāi Tūhoe took on this challenge when they decided to create a building - Te Kura Whare - which would not only meet the rigorous requirements of the standard, but would also demonstrate their unwavering commitment to responsible development which respects the environment we co-exist with.
Samantha engaged with the Living Building Challenge through design, construction, occupancy and auditing and gained valuable insights from participating in this process for the first time in New Zealand. Samantha was responsible for compliance with the Living Building Challenge on site. Samantha coordinated community engagement including, most notably, more than 200 volunteers in the creation of 5,000 hand-made earth bricks, Finally, Done worked alongside a team from Tūhoe Te Uru Taumatua to review, collate and present the evidence required to prove compliance with the standard.