2022 has seen the Living Pā site go from a partly completed demolition with remaining Victorian villas to an urban forest of timber piles.  The Christmas break will cap off a successful year for the team as they get ready to erect the first stage of the timber superstructure at the northern end of the site in early 2023.

Since starting in February this year, the team have ticked off the following milestones:

• Deconstructed the remaining elements of the wharenui and established the site.  When establishing the site, we upcycled the doors of the wharenui toilet block and framing timbers to build our smoko shed, storage and toilet facilities.  All of the fixtures and partitions from the toilets have also been saved and are in storage to be used on future Te Herenga Waka projects.
• As is the nature of old houses, some contamination was found under the footprints of the villas. The whole site was tested, cleaned and cleared prior to construction commencing.
• As a part of the Living Building Challenge, we diverted from landfill 100% of the biomass removed from site.  The team searched far and wide to find any local projects that were in need of soil and found a housing development project in Ōhariu Valley that is taking the soil to create level ground to build from.
• With the assistance of one small and one not so small mobile crane, we erected the project tower crane which now stands 40 meters above the ground.  To give you context to the crane’s position, it is situated in the main stairwell of the Living Pā and will be removed at the completion of the timber superstructure.
• Working North to South, approximately 75% of the timber driven piles are in place. The ground has proved to be extremely challenging with constantly varying rock levels. All timber piles (the big piles under the concrete pile caps and the thinner piles that support the cross laminated timber) have been driven to rock, which explains the varying heights of timber that can be seen sticking out of the ground.
• The first four pile caps and the concrete ground beam that supports the northern façade have been poured.  As part of the Living Building Challenge, concrete use is reduced as much as possible and the concrete poured to date represents approximately just over a third of all of the concrete being used on the job.  To compare this to other jobs in Wellington, the concrete poured to date equates to roughly the volume of one pile typical in larger multistorey projects.
• 80% of timber piles that make up the southern retaining wall to support Glasgow Street have been installed, with the additional wall anchors and lagging to follow shortly after.
• 2.2 tonnes of timber pile off cuts have been diverted from landfill. The Living Building Challenge requires that we evidence where waste goes, so we know these   are being used as foundations for huts, and as obstacles at the Mākara mountain bike park, for example.

To close out the year the team will be completing the timber bored piles for the southern retaining wall, pouring the pile caps for another Grid, and preparing for the first four timber columns.  This will have the site well set up for the exciting next stage of the project – the erection of the timber superstructure!

Looking to 2023, throughout January and February we intend to get underway with the following activities:

• Completion of the southern retaining wall. This will include the installation of the wall’s 28 ground anchors and waler beams, removal of the large earth bund (platform for machinery) in front of the wall that is currently providing temporary support to the underside of the Glasgow Street retaining wall, and completion of the timber lagging of the wall.
• Nearing completion of the final stage of piling for the building foundations.
• Progressing the first stage of the timber superstructure.  Unlike typical construction where all columns are erected and then the floors progressively go up, the Living Pā will be built to the complete height grid by grid. This is being done so protection can be put over the timber as soon as possible and means we can sequence many site activities in parallel which is one of the great advantages of timber construction.

Wishing you all a safe and happy Christmas and New Year.  We look forward to being part of the Te Herenga Waka community for what will be a very exciting and productive 2023.  Keep your eyes peeled for those big timber columns!

Nā mātou noa, nā

Living Pā Team, LT McGuinness, Kaihangahanga Matua