Te Whare Āwhi Ora – it’s pretty special!
Gisborne's new stunning and culturally attuned, acute mental health and addictions facility is now complete, becoming fully operational in March this year. Designed to provide a therapeutic, culturally grounded environment for individuals seeking mental health and addiction support, the new facility also has the distinction of being a Living Building Challenge (LBC) project, designed and specified by Mode Design and Architects 44.
The Living Building Challenge is a philosophy, certification, and advocacy tool for projects to move beyond merely being ‘less bad’ to become truly regenerative.
find out more here: https://living-future.org/lbc/
“The project had a carbon accountant who was calculating what was required for certification. If we were unable to reduce the primary structure’s embodied carbon by 20% the project would have been dead in the water. So, we were relying on Firth to provide the largest possible reductions with their concrete mix. They advised that EC40 was the highest level of reduction they were comfortable with.”
“With anything new - whether it’s technology or practices - you find that it’s not always smooth sailing,” adds Dan. “We completed some test pours and ironed out a few problems with these, but because the floor was to be polished, we couldn’t use a vibrator as much as we would have liked on the mix to settle it into place.”
“Using EC40 for the concrete on this project was breaking new ground so I think these sorts of challenges are the price you pay for a major step up in the technology. For the sake of the environment we need to keep pushing. Did we get it exactly right? Not really, but the experience has certainly not put us off as we have learned a lot. It’s not as simple as just picking a number.”