Kia ora,

Since the last update our piling team have completed Stage One of the piling programme and transitioned to Stage Two subfloor works.

Over the next two weeks we will starting three significant workstreams – pouring of our first pile caps, excavation works for the rainwater retention tanks and testing the ground anchors for the new retaining wall to be built at the southern end of the site to provide seismic resilience to Glasgow Street.

For those keeping a close eye on the site you will have noticed the almost artistic pattern of timber on the ground. We’re using this layout to provide structure to the ‘formwork’ that we pour concrete into. Typically, we would pour a concrete ‘tidy slab’ onto the exposed earth where we bolt formwork to. However, as we are trying to minimise the amount of concrete (and hence embodied carbon), we will be pouring straight onto the ground and using the timber to provide structural strength to the formwork. The interesting pattern of timber also explains the “I” shape of the pile caps where the structural engineering team have designed the pile caps to again use as little concrete as possible.

The careful management of wai /water, is a key feature of this project. The Living Pā has seven 15,000 L tanks that hold both rainwater and grey water which will be installed along the face of our site village and Te Tumu Herenga Waka (the wharenui). These tanks will provide both the drinking water and water for other functions in the Living Pā to minimise impact on external water sources. To install the tanks we need to dig a trench and then place the tanks in the ground with a crane. As well as providing a water supply, the tanks will provide lateral stability to the foundation system. Who knew tanks could be so handy?!

At the southern end of the site, you may have noticed a reasonably significant mound of dirt being built up against the existing Glasgow Street retaining wall. This mound or ‘bund’, has been designed by our geotechnical team to provide redundant capacity to the Glasgow Street wall when we begin the installation of the southern retaining wall. Over the duration of the wall’s installation we will be monitoring movement as well as getting regular inspections from our structural engineers. We will go into more detail with how we plan to build the retaining wall in our next fortnightly update.

We hope you enjoy watching progression until our next update!