A celebration of place: 90 Devonport Road

“During the development phase of the project, it became clear that Embrace™ would be a perfect fit for this project. 90 Devonport was set to become New Zealand’s largest mass timber office building with ambitions of a 100% reduction in embodied carbon and a 6 star Green Star rating, while the interior fitout for Tauranga City Council is targeting a WELL Gold rating,” Anton says.

 

Thanks to LumaWool™, the New Zealand strong wool material used in Embrace, it achieves a carbon negative footprint of minus 8.6kg CO₂e. Consequently, Anton says, it felt fitting to discuss the opportunity to integrate Embrace into such a unique and sustainability-focused fitout.

 

“We chose the natural wool product—Embrace installed over ReForm™, paired with Abodo timber—as an intuitive response to showcase innovation, while reducing the carbon footprint in the creation of a feature wall within the public facing gathering spaces.

 

Of course, in a government building with such a significant amount of exposed timber, acoustic privacy is a high priority. To maintain the required level of acoustic treatment without sacrificing the warm, natural timber aesthetic, WAM took a strategic approach.

 

“Our first strategy was to optimise meeting rooms and only build multi-purpose spaces that would be well used. The second strategy was to build modular pod rooms, independent of the structural grid, that could perform to a high acoustic standard and adapt to a variety of uses, including video conferencing, private meetings, and public events,” Arron explains.

 

Alongside Embrace, other carbon neutral acoustic solutions including Frontier™, Groove™, Composition®, and a bespoke boomerang-inspired Horizon™ ceiling were also specified—achieving the acoustic requirements whilst supporting the project’s aesthetic and cultural purpose.

As the pioneer project for Embrace, both WAM and Autex Acoustics were thrilled to showcase this acoustic design innovation.

 

“It was exciting to be working with Autex Acoustics during the early testing of what would become Embrace, exploring the capabilities of a new product in a highly visible environment. The sampling and shop drawing process was smooth as we were able to move quickly from ideation into specification with little delay,” Arron says.

 

Through the 90 Devonport Road project, it’s clear that collaboration with local suppliers and the specification of natural materials has a positive impact on the success of large, complex, sustainability-driven projects—an outcome Arron hopes will inspire other design professionals across Aotearoa.

 

“Showcasing so many innovative products by local suppliers alongside the beautiful timber structure, while also delivering a high performing workspace with staff wellbeing at its core, is what we are most proud of. Creating a workplace that encourages people to come together and do their best work, while fostering a sense of community by bringing people into the city centre, is another huge success for this project.”