Waitangi Precinct Design Competition
with kerstin thompson architects

Grounds for play
Our proposal offers new grounds of play for the city of Wellington. Imagined as an extension of Waitangi Park it reconnects earth, sky and sea and strengthens the city and water edges of the precinct.

A gentle topography held and framed by robust buildings our scheme provides new opportunities for living, working and playing. It achieves a balance between the development of the waterfront and its continued enjoyment by the public. The careful siting and scale of our suite of buildings and landscapes, maximise the experience of the waters edge while maintaining precious view lines from within the park and the cities north south streets. A new ground on which to play out the city's future this proposal offers a place from which to consolidate Wellington's position as cultural capital of New Zealand.

New ecologies
How can a landmark project use architecture and landscape to contribute to the larger sustainable future of our cities? How can we use excellence in building design and engineering to mitigate against the potential impact of urban development?

In response to these questions we propose a constructed environment: one that as a sophisticated ensemble of buildings, landscapes and site infrastructure forms a new ecology that supports events, people and place in a balanced relationship. Green features of the proposal
exploit Wellington's climatic conditions for carbon neutral technologies, including an eco skin for the gallery that absorbs heat in winter and reflects heat in summer and a gravity cascade system to irrigate the Chinese garden.

Taking a stroll
Imagined as a promenade in celebration of the established walking patterns of Wellington the design traces a primary path from Oriental Parade alongside the historic sea walls of Port Nicholson Yacht Club, under and over our folded ground past the graving dock, beside the
Chinese garden through our gallery up to the Marae of Te Papa. The integration of buildings and landforms orchestrates a journey which frames the harbour and city and provides intimate and open spaces for repose.

Celebrating city and sea
The proposal occupies two sites and each defines a key edge of the Waitangi precinct. Site 1,2,3 forms the water edge and site 4 the city edge. They are designed to be in conversation with each other across the park.

Waters edge
Most dramatically this edge is celebrated through our lyrical folded ground: a trafficable roof that gently rises up from Waitangi park forming a view corridor to the Tararua Mountains. A new horizon it frames the harbour and creates an urban promontory to complement the field of
the park. Underneath this is a substantial portion of the program, including cafes, restaurants, a fish market and deli. These spaces are defined by the sea wall and declaim ground to excavate the floor level in order to maintain park views of the harbour over the activities below. The roof, partly perforated, provides sheltered and sunlit places for dining, strolling and other recreation located alongside the historic sea walls: an ideal place to rest against the sea wall and experience an intimate connection with Wellington's waterfront.

City edge
Site 4 is most dramatically defined by the gallery, a robust timber framed structure referencing local construction methods and the hardiness of marine structures. It is an exemplary demonstration of contemporary environmental design. As a carapace it forms a climatic buffer to
protect the heat and light sensitive galleries which are held within its volume. The space between the galleries and the structure contain circulation creating a populated façade opposite the east wall of Te Papa . While the gallery affords occasional glimpses of both the city and
the sea it is urban in character defining the city edge of the site and providing a major space for cultural events. It also forms the primary edge to the view corridor from Tory Street to the harbour.

The Hostel building addresses Cable Street. On the ground floor is the teahouse and function rooms bridging the tranquility of the protected stepped Chinese garden to the north and the hustle and bustle of the city and occasional market to the south.

City edge - environmental statement
Contemporary art galleries are by their very nature energy intensive due to the requirements for conservation and close environmental control. The cost of heating and cooling large gallery spaces will use ever more revenue at the expense of making new aquisitions and maintenance.
Similarly there are potentially high demands for treated water associated with the requirements of the Chinese Garden and the Hostel.

Our response to these issues is closely integrated with the architectural design, the 'positively Wellington' climate, the natural sources of energy local to the waterfront site and the organization and topography of the site elements.

The 'eco-skin' is used to trap and absorb heat in Winter and to reflect and convect heat away in Summer.In so doing it will transform the Wellington waterfront climate surrounding the inner gallery structure close to the optimum temperature range for conservation and comfort purposes. The heavyweight and highly insulated nature of the inner gallery structure with a hygroscopic ceilings will provide further buffering of the external climate and stable natural control of the internal environment.

Natural daylighting is provided to the main circulation routes and the opportunity exists to extend an element of controlled toplighting of the galleries via the 'eco-skin'.

Individual displacement ventilation systems with air distribution from the floor and low level plant serve each gallery. These facilitate flexible column service free enclosures for the display of art. The advanced air handling plant design includes thermal wheels for heat/coolth and moisture recovery and CO2 sensing to match the outdoor air ventilation rates to occupancy needs.

The building will be heated and cooled by using energy and water efficient reversible heat pumps fed from the natural seawater gradient beneath the site with bores for supply and recharge. This avoids the need for unsightly cooling towers or air-cooled refrigeration equipment at roof level and maintains the architectural integrity of the 'eco- skin'. The opportunity exists to interlink the plant and energy management systems with those of the main Te Papa complex

The juxtaposition of the building elements on the site, allows a gravity cascade of rainwater down through the site from the gallery roof, through the Chinese Garden and to the Harbour in a complementary manner to the systems adopted for Waitangi Park. This allows the natural irrigation of the Chinese Garden Terracing and also collection and reuse for the Hostel toilet flushing. Flows to the harbour are minimized and filtered.

Opportunities exist to further develop the environmental strategy for the city edge site by the use of renewable energy technologies such as photovoltaics on the north facing 'eco-skin' roof and solar water heating panels on the hostel roof, although the former would be subject to sponsorship due to their high initial cost. With the potential development of West Wind at Makara it will become possible for the City and Gallery to become the first in the world to be 'Carbon Neutral' with no net carbon dioxide emissions to the environment.

Water edge - environmental statement
As the recent sharp rises in oil prices confirm the era of cheap fossil fuels has come to an end, with electricity prices set to double in the next 10 years. At the same time our community is becoming increasingly aware of environmental concerns and the need to live, work and play more sustainably. Socially responsible investment is growing at more than twice the rate of traditional products.

The strategies we propose for the mixed use developments of the water edge respond to these issues and are intended to be an extension of and complementary to those of city edge. The intention being to demonstrate the smart growth principles of 'live, work and play' underpinned by
a strong environmental theme and a commercial context of enhanced asset value.

Energy use is minimized by the use of double aspect apartments with Winter garden balconies and maximum access to natural light and ventilation. The long-life building enclosure has best practice levels of thermal insulation and low emissivity double glazing. Each apartment is
also provided with solar hot water panels integrated into the roof structure. Low energy lighting and appliances complete the strategy.

Similar to the city edge the opportunities exist for apartment owners to add to the above strategies by the addition of photovoltaic panels at roof
level for renewable energy supply. As a stimulus to their introduction the lighting of the folded roof /plaza will be powered by a photovoltaic array.

Water conservation will be encouraged by the use of ultra-low flow sanitary fixtures and by roofwater collection and recycling for toilet flushing. The folded roof plaza and impermeable areas will be treated by either a green roof component or by a bio-filter elements located beneath the promenades prior to discharge to the harbour.

Green transport solutions will be encouraged as the development forms an important boardwalk node in the pedestrian network of Wellington. Car parking will be minimized within the commercial constraints of the development and where provided will be on a 'small car' basis. Secure cycle storage will be provided for residents with additional facilities for the general public. The option exists to provide facilities for re-chargeable
electric vehicles.

The design provides a new paradigm for mixed use development in Wellington.