Scion’s building in Rotorua, New Zealand, Te Whare Nui o Tuteata, is the culmination of a vision for an innovative timber structure and the work of a team of engineers, designers and builders who weren’t afraid of a challenge. And, as senior editor Jim Bowden remarked in this story’s flashback to December 2021, that challenge rewarded architect RTA Studio + Irving Smith with the World Timber Prize and the Best Use of Certified Timber award at the World Architecture Festival in Lisbon, Portugal.
Scion is a Crown research institute that specialises in research, science and technology development for the forestry, wood product, wood-derived materials, and other biomaterial sectors.
The Word Timber Prize, awarded by PEFC/Responsible Wood, recognises architects using certified timber as a main construction material for buildings outstanding in sustainability, innovation, quality or aesthetics. Judges in Lisbon included Brisbane eco-architect and Responsible Wood director Mark Thomson
The World Architecture Festival is the largest global live awards event for architects and designers, celebrating completed buildings that stand out for their innovative and impactful use of wood. The festival includes a special prize for the Best Use of Certified Timber, which is awarded to projects that have been recognised for their commitment to sustainable timber construction. The festival attracts more than 2200 senior architects and clients from around the world, providing an opportunity for architects to gain recognition and win new business.
Architects and project teams from around the world entered their buildings into the competition.
The Scion building’s name was gifted by Ngā Hapū e Toru who hold mana over the whenua. The name acknowledges the mana of the tupuna Tuteata, from whom Ngā Hapū e Toru descend and the connection to the whenua, Tītokorangi.
Now that the building is complete, key designers have reflected on what it meant to them to work on a project that showcased timber as an innovative, low-carbon construction material.
Andrea Stocchero, Scion’s sustainability architect, said the desire was to inspire people to use timber. Professional groups such as the NZ Institute of Architects, surveyors and designers were draw to the building to gain a better understanding of the technical performance of the use of wood materials and the opportunities for carbonising that this building represents.
“If you look at the building from the outside, it is a glass box. Sure, it features interesting colours that match the forest, but what is special is the wonderful combinations of timber materials located among mana whenua’s Whakarewarewa and Tokorangi forest,” Mr Stocchero said..
“The symbolism is very strong …we have a forest …we have a building …we have a purpose.”
“As people walk in the building, they notice the contrast between the simple aesthetic of the outside and the shock of entering a huge void, featuring all this timber, the diagrid structure, lines and architecture. It is the essence of the building.”
The indoor architecture was a combination of engineering, the wood material and a simple, but organic design.
A trio of ‘peaks’ in glulam timber, representing the three hapu in the region, stand proud at the entrance. Visitors pass beneath these portals to a triple-height atrium where a curated exhibition of wood fibre technology and a café welcome the public with views to collaboration spaces above.
Immediately present is the structural diagrid which rises three storeys to form the building’s skeleton. These structural elements are made of high-performing laminated veneer lumber and feature dovetail node joints which slot and glue together.
The triple-height atrium leads up to a spectacular wooden ceiling inspired by the structure of a radiata pine genome with lighting representing the Matariki night sky. Timber battens and plywood panels in subtle tones depict the barcoding effect from plant DNA. “This combination is speaking the truth somehow,” Andrea Stocchero said.
“It’s telling the story that we wanted to tell,” he said. “And it is the story of a material which you see, you touch, you feel, which is growing in a way that the forest is growing.”
Stocchero added: “The world is on the quest of decarbonising across many different sectors. The design and construction sector of the Scion building features as a huge component of the carbon emissions of our society and the industrial era.
“We moved from bio-based materials and locally available materials in the pre-industrial era, to materials that are the result of technological developments, which pushed boundaries from an engineering point of view.”
The Scion building, opened in March 2021, stores 418 tonnes of CO2 for the life of the building – the emissions from 60 return flights from Auckland to London.
Te Whare Nui o Tuteata has won awards for World Higher Education and Research; a New Zealand Architecture Award (commercial); and a Resene Total Colour Award (Neutrals).
Editor’s note: The term ‘tapu’ in Māori culture refers to something that is sacred or has spiritual restrictions. It embodies a strong imposition of rules and prohibitions, indicating that a person, object, or place that is tapu may not be touched or approached. The concept of tapu is fundamental in Māori life, often associated with the natural world and the energies present within it. It is contrasted with ‘noa’ which signifies the opposite state, representing the ordinary or unrestricted.
