The Scion Innovation Hub is a reinvention of the Rotorua headquarters of Scion, a Crown Research Institute that specialises in technology development for the forestry industry. Aptly located on the edge of the redwood forest in Whakarewarewa Forest Park, the project brings the workforce, previously siloed in smaller buildings dotted around the campus, into a central innovation hub while creating a new campus arrival point to strengthen the public interface for Scion.
As assessed using the Etool system, the Scion Innovation Hub achieves embodied carbon zero at the time of completion. Furthermore, to measure all of life and end of life carbon, the new building was assessed to achieve the 2030 target set by the RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) of 500kg of carbon/ msq. By using engineered products made from sustainably grown pine and putting more thought into the operational characteristics of a building, the building significantly contributes to New Zealand’s carbon-zero future to leave a much lighter footprint on the land.
Speaker: Richard Naish
Richard founded RTA Studio in July 1999. He is responsible for the design philosophy and strategic direction of the practice. A graduate of the University of Auckland School of Architecture, he worked at top practices in Auckland and London before launching RTA Studio.