Scion's striking new three storey building, Te Whare Nui o Tuteata in Rotorua
Scion's new building is sustainably designed with typical office heating and cooling needs significantly reduced.
Developed for the local climate, a motorised double-skin façade provides heat recovery in winter with the coloured glazing panels and internal building cavity regulating thermal gains in summer. Other energy saving features include natural ventilation, solar shading and LED lighting – all contributing to reducing plant and ongoing running costs.The building is sustainably designed with typical office heating and cooling needs significantly reduced.
The building contains 454 m3 of structural wood, storing approximately 418 tonnes of CO2-e for the life of the building. This storage is equivalent to the emissions from 160 people taking return flights from Auckland to London. New Zealand radiata pine forests can regrow this amount of wood in only 35 minutes. (Note, this building was not designed as carbon-negative, but choosing wood instead of alternative construction materials has value in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and fossil fuel consumption during the product manufacturing and building construction stages.)