The project—which is registered with the International Living Futures Institute (IFLI) Living Building Challenge® (LBC) to become a ‘living building’—aligns Māori values with the performance-based construction methodology of the LBC. Once it has fulfilled the Living Building™ criteria, Ngā Mokopuna will join an exclusive club of only 36 other certified Living Buildings in the world.

Te Herenga Waka’s Ngā Mokopuna project managers say the LBC is called a challenge for a reason.

“The LBC is not for the faint-hearted,” says co-project manager Rhonda Thomson. “It’s a substantial and sophisticated undertaking requiring an immense commitment by many.”

She says Ngā Mokopuna goes far beyond the ‘green’ buildings most people will be familiar with. “The LBC is a philosophy where projects actively ‘do good’ and are regenerative, as opposed to just ‘doing less harm’,” she says. “The University wanted to use this framework for the Marae redevelopment to create more than a building—Ngā Mokopuna talks about our whakapapa and values. In so many ways, it represents a real paradigm shift for sustainability in the construction industry.”

The LBC certification is measured across seven mandatory performance criteria—Place, Water, Energy, Health and Happiness, Materials, Equity, and Beauty. Within those are 20 imperatives and 120 sub-imperatives that require the building’s occupants and managers to instigate behavioural change, and demonstrate a positive impact.

The Living Building™ is net zero in water, with all water systems—grey, black, storm and drinking—managed within the site, taking into account how they relate to the local ecology. Water is collected from the roof and stored in underground tanks, greywater is collected for vacuum-flushing toilets, and wastewater is treated on site.

The whare is also net zero in energy, with photovoltaic panels on the roof generating 105 percent of the building’s electricity needs so it actually gives back to the grid.

The construction process required the team to pay extremely rigorous attention to the buildings materiality, with strict constraints on materials that contain toxic chemicals, and a requirement to divert a staggering 95 percent of the project’s construction waste from landfill. Ngā Mokopuna can also lay claim to being Aotearoa’s first carbon positive commercial build in an urban setting—sequestering   carbon in the structure by using locally grown and engineered timber.

But many of the imperatives aren’t things you’d associate with a typical construction project, explains Lincoln North, Living Pā co-project manager.

“The LBC framework requires buildings to demonstrate the less ‘black and white’ concepts of beauty, equity, health and happiness, and a sense of its connection to place,” he says. “These are all really important because they’re about people and community, which is fundamentally what this marae-based project is all about. It was conceptualised and designed as a place for many people to come together, it’s a beautiful building, it speaks to Māori values, and of course it retains the original wharenui.”

The certification framework is based on actual performance, rather than how the building might be predicted to function. To attain LBC certification, Living Building’s™  management team are required to provide both narrative and technical data as evidence to address the criteria—these measurements are taken over a 12-month period of continuous occupation and subjected to a strict auditing process. Only once that has been achieved will the Living Pā become a fully certified IFLI Living Building.

“The process is extremely robust and frankly a bit scary,” explains Rhonda. “An enormous amount of effort goes into a Living Building and there’s no guarantee you’ll get the certification. It’s about actual performance, so the onus is on us all to keep up the effort long after we’ve moved in,” she says.

Lincoln says the construction process provided more than a few curveballs. “If you’re going to tackle a highly innovative project like this, I don’t recommend doing it in the middle of a world crisis like Covid,” he laughs. “Challenges are normal for any construction project, but this was particularly tricky as we literally had no blueprint to work from—there are so many cutting edge innovations in the building that required a fluid and iterate approach, both during design and construction.”

But he is very proud of the way Ngā Mokopuna has set new standards for what can be achieved in sustainable construction. “We’ve done a huge amount of learning, and this building will be the industry benchmark for a number of years”.

Building regeneratively is about taking a long-term view in order to live more in tune and complementary to nature, says Rhonda. “The LBC is a framework understands this, and the importance of our relationship with the natural world. It forces us to create and advocate for change at every level, and is about heart leadership.”

In that way, Rhonda says Ngā Mokopuna is a Māori space. “Manaakitanga and kaitiakitanga are the nexus from which the project flows, and the understanding that our mana emanates from the land—when we look after the land we can rightly say that we are people of the land.”

Rhonda says while this project has been tough, it is also exceptional. “It goes beyond just being innovative—the whare is pushing benchmarks that far exceed anything that’s been seen in Aotearoa before, and many people should feel a sense of pride in this. The project has a moral objective—to do the right thing for future generations.”