King Edwards Barracks Car Park in Christchurch is over 20,000m² and provides 680 car parking spaces. It opened to the public in April 2017.
Client: Ngai Tahu Property
Architect: Warren & Mahoney
Contractor: Southbase Construction
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The Brief
We were engaged by the architects to provide a full design-build service of the louvred façade to each end of the building.
Key Challenges
- The louvre profile was too large to be extruded by any NZ-based manufacturers.
- The finishes were to be selected from a range of different shades of bronze anodising, forming a rhythmic colour pattern over the façade.
Our Approach
We designed and engineered:
- a custom extruded blade profile that could be manufactured locally, allowing us to maintain tight control over the process
- a secondary aluminium support structure for the individual louvre blades, which would transfer the load back to the primary steel columns
- a concealed bracketry system to provide a clean and aesthetically appealing finish
- high-performance double-bank ventilation louvres (working alongside the window subcontractor), which were glazed into the window joinery frames.
Result
Starting with the initial brief, we developed a structurally sound and buildable solution, whilst retaining the architectural intent. The result was a high quality, functional and striking building.