Project Description

  • 90 Devonport Rd render.jpg
  • 90 Devonport construction birds eye view.jpg
  • 90 Devonport Rd construction site.jpg
  • 90 Devonport construction site.jpg
  • 90 Devonport construction site.jpg
  • 90 Devonport construction site.jpg
  • 90 Devonport construction site.jpg
  • 90 Devonport construction site.jpg

90 Devonport Rd

Project Description

CREDITS: Client: Tauranga City Council / Architect: Warren & Mahoney / Structural Engineer: Dunning Thornton / Builder: LT McGuinness / Developer: Willis Bond / Products: CLT


The Project
New Zealand

The 90 Devonport Road project represented a significant opportunity and challenge: constructing New Zealand’s largest mass timber office building while meeting sustainability, efficiency, quality, and carbon reduction targets. With an eight-story structure primarily featuring Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT), the project had high expectations for precision, timely delivery, and environmental leadership. Ensuring a seamless integration of design, manufacture, and installation was crucial to maintaining the project schedule.

The 90 Devonport Road office building in Tauranga is an ambitious, future-focused development driven by sustainable construction principles. This showcases the growing shift towards mass timber as a low-carbon alternative to traditional building materials.

Red Stag TimberLab (RSTL) supplied over 3000m3 of CLT for floors, walls, roofs, and prefabricated stairs.

Spanning eight stories, the structure will house Tauranga City Council staff and emphasizes the council’s commitment to leadership in sustainability.

Red Stag TimberLab’s Involvement

The RSTL team provided expert consultation and design support throughout the planning phase with Early Contractor Involvement (ECI), in close collaboration with architects, engineers, and contractors to develop optimised CLT solutions tailored to the project’s requirements.

A meticulously executed 3D modelling process along with the latest CNC technology allowed RSTL to manufacture CLT elements to high precision, beneficial to the installation stage. A total of 934 individual elements were manufactured and installed with speed and accuracy. RSTL’s digital fabrication process ensured a streamlined, just-in-time delivery that helped the construction stage stay on track without needing additional storage or material protection contingencies on-site. This approach underpinned the project’s efficiency and minimized disruption during construction.

Red Stag Renewable Energy

Red Stag’s self-sufficient renewable energy generation secures our position as the lowest-carbon CLT supplier in New Zealand. Renewable energy is generated through the efficient use of by-products and waste materials from our timber operations, and excess energy is fed back to the national grid. This closed-loop system minimizes waste, maximizes renewable resource use, and aligns with sustainability goals, reducing the company’s carbon footprint while enhancing its positive impact on the environment and community.

Bio-Fuel Energy- Red Stag Timber utilises offcuts from sawing and planning as a bio-fuel to generate electricity and provide thermal energy to dry timber. Red Stag Timber is also a net exporter of electricity to the national grid to help power New Zealand’s growing energy needs.

Thermal Energy- Wood waste is used as the energy source for the kiln drying of timber. The thermal energy required to kiln dry timber can exceed 85% of the energy usage for a modern sawmill. Utilising its own wood offcuts as an energy source ensures that both CO2 emissions and landfill disposal requirements are minimised.

Results

The CLT components showcased exceptional structural integrity, surpassing traditional construction materials in strength and resilience. By leveraging the latest digital CNC technology and prefabricated CLT solutions, the construction process at 90 Devonport Rd achieved notable efficiency gains, reducing labour costs and accelerating project timelines without compromising on quality.

The use of sustainably sourced and manufactured CLT contributed significantly to the project’s environmental goals. The CLT in this project has sequestrated 2,213.4 tonnes of CO2-eq based on Red Stag’s Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) and third-party calculations, greatly reducing the carbon footprint, and reinforcing RSTL’s commitment to sustainable construction.

Testimonials

“LT McGuinness contracted Red Stag to provide the CLT walls and floor panels for the 90 Devonport Road project in Tauranga. The detailed shop drawing process and delivery schedule coordination enabled our team to confidently proceed with a just-in-time delivery model. The product quality allowed us to exceed the programmed installation timeframes for the entire build, creating advantages to commence the façade and fit-out ahead of schedule.”

— Craig from LT McGuinness

“Engaging with local industries to build the Tauranga City Council offices at 90 Devonport Road has been one of the great pleasures of this development. This was certainly the case with Red Stag TimberLab, who manufactured and delivered the CLT components from their plant in Rotorua. The efficiencies of CLT manufacture from RSTL enabled the build to stay on time, and we have no hesitation in working with RSTL again.”

— Will Ellison, Developer at Willis Bond