WallÉ Mark II set to take shape
A model of the three-level, mixed retail and office space development in Whakatū Nelson.
Irving Smith Architects continues to further new generations of timber structural buildings with its latest project in Whakatū Nelson’s central CBD — a 2000sqm mixed retail and office space development set across three levels on an enclosed 900sqm site.
Architect Andrew Irving says the project, a big sister to the practice’s award-winning studio WallÉ, advances ISA’s research into innovative and carbon-better hybrid building techniques.
“A concrete perimeter allows full site occupation, anchored by a service core central to a lightweight timber post/beam/floor system,” he says. “Steel is used for tension bracing only, to reduce carbon loading.”
Irving says small projects like these are important.
“Introducing more timber and better carbon outcomes to the typologies we work on most often is something we can all attempt, and that’s how we start to make a difference.”
The 12–15-month construction phase is scheduled to start during the first quarter of 2024.
