Te Puni Kokiri House, Wellington

It may appear fairly unassuming from the outside, but Te Puni Kõkiri House in Wellington, New Zealand, is the city’s first commercial office building to receive a 5 star Green Star Office Built rating. At the time of writing, it is also one of only four buildings in New Zealand to receive three innovation points for Green Star.

Not since the 1990s had the office complex been structurally updated, when three floors and an air conditioning system were added, and the lifts upgraded. It has remained in all its decorative glory, a building functioning on clunky 20th century systems. This historic 1930s office building, which has received the most basic of upgrades over the last 85 years, is now kicking the big ‘green’ goals. Refurbishment of the property included the following features:

• First project to receive a 5 Star Green Star Office Built rating in Wellington
• One of only 4 buildings nationwide with 3 or more innovation points for Green Star
• Awarded 4 Star NABERSNZ for energy performance
• Heat Recovery from the Air Cooled Chiller
• EC Fan Units (Ability Matrix 2); the use of EC fans instead of traditional fans saves approximately 30% electrical energy
• EC FCU and Occupancy Sensor Control with relaxed temperature setpoints saves ad additional 30% of energy used by traditional FCUs
• Use of Building Management System which includes logic pages, allowing review of BMS programming by non-BMS staff to fully understand the actions and reactions of the HVAC and BMS systems
• Occupancy sensors for lighting (and as used by HVAC where possible)
• Condensing boilers
• Daylight harvesting installed in upper floors and daylight sensors and dimming for the perimeter zones for the lower floors
• Sub metering of electricity and water to allow ongoing monitoring and tracking on energy and water usage, including correct divisions of energy consumption for NABERSNZ ratings
• Lighting consumption 2W/m² per 100lx using high LOR T5 Fluorescent fittings.

Read more about Te Puni Kokiri House, The Quite Achiever here.

Awards

• New Zealand 2016 EECA Awards – Winner, Opus International Consultants Public Sector Award
• New Zealand 2016 EECA Awards – Highly Commended, Smart Energy Solutions Small to Medium Energy User Award
• New Zealand Commercial Project Awards 2015 – Silver Award Winner.