Tait wins Christchurch Energy Champion Award

Tait Communications was recognized for its new high-tech campus at the prestigious EECA awards ceremony held at the Auckland Museum on Wednesday, 28 May. Tait was named winner of the Christchurch Energy Champion Award, in recognition of its leadership in energy efficiency and innovation during the Christchurch rebuild.

The $35 million Tait Campus development is set on 11ha of land alongside Tait’s existing buildings and features the construction of an über energy efficient new headquarters for up to 350 of its Christchurch-based employees. The vision of the new campus is to embrace the principles of innovation, sustainability and collaboration and to capture the vision for the new city of Christchurch.

The new Tait headquarters features a state of the art groundwater heating and cooling system, energy efficient fluorescent and LED lighting, and a modular design that maximizes space efficiency. A 12m high light-filled atrium anchors the two wings and Structural Timber Innovation Company (STIC) LVL timber, developed at the University of Canterbury, has been used in place of steel as the primary structure. In announcing the award, the judges said that the new Tait Campus was “An ambitious, whole campus sustainability project. As a complex anywhere it would be advanced and worthy of admiration. In the context of Christchurch, it has potential to be a positive touchstone for a re-emerging city, both economically and environmentally.”

David Browne Contractors Ltd have installed aquatherm blue pipe in all the HVAC heating and cooling requirements throughout the project. There are a variety of high end energy aspects incorporated by Opus Consultants into the requirement on the air conditioning. Chilled beams are a feature used extensively throughout the project along with a substantial under floor heating installation designed by Christchurch consultants Powell Fenwick.

aquatherm Germany CEO Dirk Rosenberg visited the David Browne team on site during the installation (pictured).  No stranger to European multi story award winning projects, he was extremely impressed with the modern design concept, the energy requirements and the standard of installation by the DBC team.

Tim Browne, General Manager confirmed that Higgs Construction were an excellent partnering company for David Browne Contractors on such a complex project and have enjoyed good success together in recent years on larger Christchurch based project.  With a successful outcome on the Tait project they are partnering again on the Christchurch St Georges Hospital project incorporating blue aquatherm pipe in the HVAC requirements.

Builder:                                               Higgs Construction – Christchurch

Mechanical design inc.                       Opus Consultants – Christchurch

UFH:                                                   Powell Fenwick – Christchurch

Mechanical Installer:                           David Browne Contractors Ltd – Christchurch

Contract Manager David Browne:       Leon Stone