Earthquake-proof timber building wins NZ design award
18 October 2011New Zealand’s Timber Design Awards has seen the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology’s Arts & Media Building – a seismically-protected timber structure – win two major prizes.
The three-storey building won the commercial engineering and commercial architectural excellence awards.
It is made entirely from locally-grown and fabricated LVL and includes the world’s first “damage avoidance” seismic engineering incorporating post-tensioned timber shear walls.
Judges described the building as a “beautifully integrated design solution where the design process has fully embraced structural timber innovation to create a Landmark building for New Zealand”.
Meanwhile, the interior of Wellington Airport’s new international terminal – “the Rock” – won the interior fit-out award with the judges commenting on its “visually arresting interior”.
Other main award winners were Little Oneroa House, Waiheke Island; the MOTAT Aviation Display Hall; and Rotoroa Island Exhibition Centre.
The People’s Choice award went to Kanuka Engineered Wood Products Ltd and Structural Concepts Ltd for Red Stag Timber’s remanufacturing building in Rotorua.
