***Project description and design process at the end of photos
Photo by Kelvin Lim
Toddler (1-2yrs) activity space entrance.
Photo by Kelvin Lim
Toddler (0-1yrs) activity space one looking out to the native surrounding bush.
Photo by Kelvin Lim
Toddler (0-1yrs) activity space one reading nook.
Photo by Kelvin Lim
Preschoolers (3-4) activity space nook leading out to playspace.
Photo by Kelvin Lim
Preschoolers (4-5) activity space
Photo by Kelvin Lim
Exterior view from playground through to central courtyard space.
Photo by Kelvin Lim
Looking back at the south elevation of Building A.
Photo by Kelvin Lim
Aerial view looking over the centre during sunset.
Photo by Kelvin Lim
Building C and A corner aerial detail.
Photo by Kelvin Lim
Entrance approach from the carpark and bridge to Building A.
Photo by Kelvin Lim
The Newshoots Early Childhood Education Centre is designed for 100 children to a brief provided by a client who had developed several centres previously. Although a challenging site, the vision was to exploit the natural surroundings and create a ‘nature classroom’ for young children, with abundant planting and curated native wetland.
The project is located at the edge of established residential development in leafy semi-rural surroundings. Almost adjacent and hidden from view (but not entirely from hearing) by a huge artificial embankment is a new major motorway that cuts across the end of the road eliminating through traffic and creating an isolated backwater.
The site, split into two areas by a stream, had become an abandoned and neglected wasteland. Detention ponds for receiving motorway construction run-off had been filled with industrial waste. There were mounds of excavated spoil, dumps of rubbish and a derelict house containing asbestos. Some native bush and wildlife, including pests and noxious plants, was recolonizing the surface and the sluggish watercourse was clogged with silt and debris.
Traditionally the Early Childhood Education building Model is one long rectangular volume with a central corridor with the services on one side and activity spaces on the other. This site, due to its constraints and undulating nature required a different thinking and strategic approach around how the program requirements, services, circulation, play space, and the interplay between the volumes would work.
The site revealed to be part of a Significant Ecological Area on the planning maps - a zone where normally building is not permitted. However, because of the embarrassing eyesore and hazard to neighbouring homes for several years, a heavily conditioned Resource Consent was able to be negotiated with the local authority. This included the imposition of onerous ecological requirements such as a lizard management plan and the need to fit construction programme around bird nesting seasons.
On removing the derelict house initial geotechnical investigation revealed poor ground conditions as well as buried construction waste. Pockets of buried material including asbestos continued dogging the project throughout construction of foundations.
The many site difficulties were a significant factor in determining design strategy.
Responding to undulating site topography, two of the buildings were constructed on suspended concrete slabs with timber pole foundations while the other has a concrete raft on grade. Significant pole and retaining structures were also required for the suspended play decks and car park.
Superstructures are a composite assembly of Cross Laminated Timber panels and steel frames, both systems prefabricated off-site. Externally, cladding is vertical cedar, roofing is profiled metal.
Exposed timber panels and polished concrete floors are both essential internal design ingredients. The painted steelwork also expresses the construction bones, each building having a different colour theme. These natural colour tones are picked up in other components such as built-in cabinetry. A playful feature is the curved lighting.
How consideration of sustainability informed selection of materials
Minimal carbon footprint is inherent with timber as primary building material. Cross-laminated timber (CLT) wall and roof panels are both structure and internal finish. External cladding is also timber. In foundations and retaining structures, timber poles and mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) decrease concrete use. Timber and steel components are dismantlable and recyclable at end-of-building life.
Environmental choice/eco-label products to improve indoor air quality for growing children include zero ODP insulation and low VOC and formaldehyde products.
Emissions are minimized by using Low GHG all-electric high-efficiency commercial grade air source heat pump heating in winter with zero-ozone depleting refrigerants.
To reduce energy losses the building envelope has external rigid insulation detailed to minimise cold-bridging. Windows and doors are double glazed.
How consideration of sustainability informed construction method
Sustainability of construction moved hand in hand with economic factors.
Deciding to separate car parking clear from buildings streamlined the construction programme. Excavated materials from the buildings site were used as fill for the car park, where slow MSE retaining construction was adopted, saving cost and carbon.
Each of the three separate buildings had foundations specific to its own location on the undulating site. Each took shape sequentially, enabling efficiencies in the small locally-based workforce and frugal use of mechanical equipment.
Use of prefinished prefabricated components significantly reduced the amount of construction materials, time and waste once the floor slabs were completed. Significant lead time needed for design and fabrication of the prefabricated elements dovetailed with the foundations period.
How consideration of sustainability informed operating systems
A range of sensible and affordable environmental features have been included to minimize energy use and improve environmental quality:
Optimised levels of thermal insulation to balance wintertime heating and summertime cooling energy demands
Heat pump heating and cooling. Natural ventilation with a range of opening window provisions including trickle vents, manually controllable louvred vertical windows, sliding doors.
Mechanical supply ventilation to the sleeping areas.
Low energy LED lighting and good levels of natural light through perimeter glazing.
Occupancy control of lighting in transient areas.
Low flow water fixtures. Use of local rainwater tank and rainwater harvesting for toilet flushing and irrigation/hose taps.
Embodied carbon assessments and information
The project required 105m³ of XLam CLT manufactured from Radiata Pine. The manufacturer’s EPD (Environmental Product Declaration) specific cradle to grave supply chain calculation reports that this equates to circa 28.3t sequestered CO2at the site, taking into account the freight carbon footprint. Foundation and other timber will add to this embodied carbon, and this will significantly offset the negative carbon contributed by construction steel and concrete. It is thought that the building will be close to carbon neutral, however, a complete net carbon assessment has not been possible due to lack of comprehensive data.
Operational carbon use
The Centre operates primarily during daylight hours and has been designed to provide a comfortable passive environment partially assisted with mechanical systems. It is anticipated that both running costs and operational carbon use were designed to be low. No quantitative predictive calculations were made but guidance based on experience was provided by the sustainability consultant. As the building has just been completed no operational data is yet available. Its progress over the year will be followed to inform our future centre designs.
It was important to us and our clients that sustainability formed an integral part of the client’s considerations and capital v operating cost equations moving forward. It is hoped that this building will influence their future buildings.
The Centre is organized into three shallow plan passively controlled pavilions: Toddlers & Staff, Infants, and Pre-schoolers. Each has a roof shape that allows high-level ventilation and morning sunshine into the children’s activity spaces. The buildings are arranged to form a triangular courtyard play area protected by a translucent veranda. The buildings are accessed from the car park via a timber bridge, creating a unique entrance over the stream.