Progressive BUILDING, April/May 2005
Sustainable Building

Landcare Research

One of the goals of the Landcare Research facility at Auckland’s Tamaki campus was to demonstrate that a ‘green’ building can be constructed at a comparable cost to that of a regular building. The 18-month design and build process wrapped up in April last year.
Energy was a key focus for the project. The design aimed to maximise passive climate control, keeping warmth in but excess hat and cold out. Interior temperatures are expected to be between 17 C and 21 C when outdoor temperatures will range from 6 C to 27 C.

The energy consumption target is 100kWhr/m2/yr – a traditional office building rakes up 200kWhr/m2/yr while a building with laboratories will consume close to 300kWhr/m2/yr. There are several design features that will help to meet the target.
The outer shell of the structure is multilayered to restrict heat gains from or heat loss to the outside. The innermost layer is a concrete block wall (keeping the thermal mass on the inside), followed by a thick layer of rigid fibreglass insulation, a ventilated cavity, a vapour seal layer and finally an exterior timber or metal cladding. Internally, exposed concrete has been widely used to boost the building’s thermal storage capacity.

High-performance insulation has been used in the roof, walls and floors around the collections, while mid-level insulation exists around the atrium and office facades. Low-level insulation sits between air-conditioned and non-air-conditioned areas.

Double glazed windows with opening frames fro fresh air provide yet another element to reduce the energy bill. Typically, an office loses heat at a rate of 100W/m2 of window; this drops to 56W/m2 with the aid of double glazing.
Two solar panels on the roof supply the energy for hot water throughout the laboratory systems. The cafeteria has its own solar hot water storage system.

Lastly, a 400W wind-powered generator by the glasshouses provides sufficient power to pump rainwater from the storage tanks by the glasshouses back up to the roof tanks, which supply water for

flushing urinals and ground floor toilets. (The first and second floors boast composting toilets).
Clearly, water conservation is another key consideration; mains water consumption is reduced thanks to the on-site practice of rainwater harvesting.

The building is the subject of extensive research and monitoring so we can keep track of the energy use and isolate areas where the usage seems higher than anticipated,’ says Maggie Lawton, operations manager at Landcare Research. ‘The energy consumption, while presently slightly higher than our goal of 70% savings over a conventional building, will be well on its way to achieving that goal once fine-tuning of the building is complete.’

Main Contractor Hawkins Construction
Architect Chow:Hill Architects
Sustainable Architecture Diprose Architects, Robert Vale
Project Management/QS RDT Pacific
Planning Consultants Haines Planning
Engineer (mechanical/civil/structural/fire

/electrical/hydraulics/stormwater) Connell Mott MacDonald