Windy Ridge School – Te Whare Ako wins Excellence Award at PCNZ Property Industry Awards 2024
The Respond Architects and Prendos project team who worked on the development of the new high performance classroom building – Te Whare Ako – for Windy Ridge School were honoured to be recognised with an Excellence Award at last Friday’s Property Industry Awards 2024, hosted by the Property Council NZ.
Project Lead for Respond Architects, Joe Lyth, said the project was “a pleasure to lead”, and credited the entire project team.
“It was only a success thanks to the whole team, and I’m so proud of everyone who was involved”, commented Joe.
The project provides 12 new teaching spaces for the Green-Gold Enviroschool located on Auckland’s North Shore, within a healthy, low energy building that minimises its impact on the environment. Joe says the project achieved everything it set out to and more from a performance perspective, and even came in under budget and was completed a month ahead of schedule by main Contractors Woodview Construction.
Prendos structural engineer on the project, Georgina Wooldridge, said the job was well coordinated between the various specialists involved, which resulted in everything going to plan on site.
With the benefit of having architects and structural engineers under one roof, the project was streamlined during the design phase. This allowed for fast and efficient design changes when required, which led to a smooth construction phase.
“There were very few queries on site during the construction process, so it went together really well,” Georgina said. “The team on site could easily work from the construction drawings and build it without any hassles.”
The building was designed for higher energy efficiency performance than required under the Building Code, incorporating heat recovery ventilation, a warm roof, structural thermal breaks and continuous insulation to the slab and foundations. Utilising energy modelling to fine-tune the design, the team from Respond Architects was able to achieve a heating energy demand 55% lower than the current Building Code minimums, while the overheating potential of the building is 38% lower than Code.
“It’s proof that when you consider performance from the start of the design process, achieving better buildings does not have to cost more,” said Joe.
The interior spaces plan for the future as the school grows, with teaching and breakout space in a variety of sizes and types, and a centralised social staircase and gallery space. Exterior learning spaces are accessible from both floors, and a rear bridge connects the building back to the bank and orchard beyond.
The Property Council New Zealand Property Industry Awards were held on Friday 14 June 2024. The Windy Ridge School – Te Whare Ako project received an Excellence Award in the Colliers Project Leaders Education Property Award category, which was accepted on behalf of the project team by Joe Lyth (Respond Architects, Georgina Wooldridge (Prendos),), Tracey van Staden (BECA) and Rudolf Biesheuvel (Woodview Construction).
Client: Ministry of Education
Stakeholder: Windy Ridge School
Architect: Respond Architects
Structural Engineer: Prendos
Contractor: Woodview Construction
Project Manager: BECA
Quantity Surveying: Kingstons
Services & Fire Engineers: Stephenson & Turner
Project Images: Mark Scowen Photography
