One of the distinctive things about the Living Pā is our aspiration to achieve the International Living Futures Institutes’® Living Building Challenge® (LBC) certification. This is a building sustainability system that advocates for and creates projects that actively ‘do good’. This represents a move away from trying to ‘do less harm’ to the natural environment and communities, or even ‘do no harm’, and to actually giving back.
In a world where every major ecological system is in decline, and the rate of decline is increasing, the LBC is a call to action for the transformational change and the creation of exemplars.
The LBC’s philosophy has two underpinning principles. Firstly, projects must be holistic, and address seven categories—Place, Water, Energy, Health and Happiness, Materials, Equity and Beauty (you’ll see these shared on the site’s signage if you happen to pass by)—and 20 imperatives that are sort of subsections. The point is each petal and imperative tries to achieve something significant.
The second principle is that certification is based on actual performance, rather than modelled or anticipated performance. This means that certification is a long road that occurs one to two years after the building is built. It’s not about designing it, saying it ticks all the boxes and here’s certification. It’s about testing if it actually does meet our intentions—such as net zero energy, and net zero water. Futhermore, people are interviewed about their experience of the building to help measure impact. Audit to certification is really comprehensive.
By applying the LBC’s philosophies and the values and kawa that Te Herenga Waka Marae represents, the Living Pā will be a living lab—an interactive teaching and learning environment, that demonstrates and monitors what’s possible.
Future blog posts will explore the Living Pā’s approach to the LBC categories.