Christchurch's Tūranga is a library 'that rocks' on the world stage

Thursday, 26 December 2019

Christchurch's Tūranga central library took out the supreme award in the 2019 Property Council Awards. (Video first published in June 2019)

Christchurch library Tūranga recently won a prestigious award at the 'world champs' of structural engineering but it's already won over tourists and locals alike. Check it out writes VICKI ANDERSON.

On a gloriously sweltering Saturday afternoon near Christchurch's bustling Riverside Market earlier this month, a dynamic shirtless man with a green-tipped beard was shouting into a microphone that he was 'wearing no underpants'.

For 15 minutes British entertainer Mr Freak, as he later identified himself, dazzled the assembled crowd with his sword swallowing skills, 'clapping tongue' and saucy banter.

The edgy performance left some curious onlookers wondering whether to stay and stare or run and call police.

* Thousands visit Christchurch's new $92m central library

* Council labelled 'most secretive in NZ'**

After the street show a large group of assembled tourists from Britain, Lithuania, Canada, Ireland and Denmark discussed their favourite places in Christchurch and all listed the city's new central library, Tūranga, in their top five.

The $92.7 million five-storey facility opened in October 2018 and is the most modern public library in the southern hemisphere and the largest in the South Island.

An intense, well-travelled man from Denmark spent several minutes explaining his theory that you can tell a lot about a place by the state of its library facilities and the importance of libraries for human interaction for lower socio-economic members of society.

'Smart library equals smart people,' he concluded.

Structural engineer Helen Trappitt has won and been nominated for multiple awards for her post-earthquake work.

'Your library just won a global engineering award,' added Dex, an Irishman working on the city's rebuild.

Libraries play an integral role in society as a place open to all but typically do so quietly and with little fanfare.

But if you still picture libraries as a place to be 'shushed', think again. Our libraries are staffed by fun-loving sorts who bounce around wearing lanyards and helpful expressions.

Tūranga is a riot of sights, sounds and interesting people watching for opportunities as, on a typical day, around 3000 people will visit.

Outside on this particular Saturday, a group sat on the ground blowing bubbles, while small children laughed and played with oversized building blocks.

Inside, a large group of people stood around five exotic-looking motorcycles pointing and chatting as a giant TV behind them silently played motorcycle-related footage.

In one of four over-sized green chairs, a homeless man charged his phone – donated to him by a local charitable organisation – while reading Essa May Ranapiri's poem Echidna: Born of Eve and Lucifer from the crisp white pages of a 2018 Landfall magazine.

'I charge my phone and I use the bathroom here,' he explained. 'On my phone I have a list of places I can check through Facebook where I might be able to get food. If I can't charge my phone I go hungry.'

Two teenage girls played chess, while others are climbing the stairs with impromptu boisterous outbursts of singing. It's impossible not to be impressed by the distinctive atrium stairway – Ngā Iho o Te Rangi – which references 'rays of light'.

Structural engineer and director of Lewis Bradford, Helen Trappitt has actively worked on many of the city's public art project including Spires in Latimer Square and SCAPE. This is one of her of her own works, a post-earthquake Gap Filler monopoly board.

A cheeky 90-year-old named Betty confided she'd caught two buses to get her weekly stash of large print and talking books.

Once a week, the library offers her conversation and company, she explained.

'Someone always talks to me here. That doesn't happen if I sit around at home.'

As for the library being a head-turning award-winner on the world stage, it turns out, Dex was well-informed.

Helen Trappitt, a structural engineer and director of Christchurch-based firm Lewis Bradford Consulting Engineers, said Tūranga had 'won a lot of awards' since it opened.

Lewis Bradford were the structural engineers for Southbase Construction as part of the design-build contract for Christchurch City Council.

'Tim Shannon is the lead engineer and my husband, Craig Lewis, the project director,' Trappitt explained.

'Being a relatively small firm we don't have a marketing team. But this year we decided to put submissions in for various engineering awards so I took on the role of putting the entries together. We have been overwhelmed and humbled by the results.'

She rattled off the long list of awards for Tūranga: New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering (NZSEE) - Seismic Resilience Award for low damage design; The Structural Engineering Society of New Zealand (SESOC) – Commercial Building Award and the SESOC Supreme Award; Sandy Cormack Award for best paper/presentation at the Concrete NZ Conference; The Association of Consulting Engineers New Zealand (ACENZ) – Silver Award.

'And the project also received a special community award for collaboration for the people of Christchurch, the CCC and the Matapopore Trust,' Trappitt said. 'It was also highly commended for the Innovation Award at the Engineering NZ ENVI Awards.'

Tūranga also recently won the 'big kahuna'.

At an awards ceremony in London for the Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE), the Christchurch firm won the award category for Structures in Extreme Conditions.

Describing Tūranga as 'a building which keeps giving', Lewis said the win was an important one for Christchurch's reputation.

'The Institution of Structural Engineers is UK-based but it is seen as a global institution, the IStructE is the world champs, if you like, of structural engineering.'

Of the 55 finalists across 12 categories, with some of the grandest and most innovative buildings in the world included as finalists, there were only three finalists from the southern hemisphere.

'That was the really exciting thing, it does show the global nature of the awards.The rest were from China, New York … they cover everything from skyscrapers to stadia, bridges. In our category there was a massive building in San Francisco, a bespoke project, an aircraft testing hangar in the UK and a historic building in London.'

'The category we won was Structures in Extreme Conditions, because of the seismicity from the Christchurch earthquake sequence we were designing for. Tūranga is such an important public facility with quite exacting specifications.'

Judges praised the 10,000-square-metre library and described it as 'a great example of how structural engineers can make such a crucial difference to a building'. They added Tūranga is, in every sense, 'a building that rocks'.

One noted: 'Tūranga's hidden beauty lies in its level of seismic resilience, such that after a serious seismic event, the shock-absorbing systems could be readily replaced and the building would be reusable.'

The massive concrete core walls, some weighing about 140 tonnes, were cast flat on site and then 'tilted up'. They provide stability to the building and in a seismic event are able to 'rock' due to their connection to the foundations and to adjacent components, being made with replaceable shock-absorbing devices. They work in conjunction with a perimeter steel movement-resisting frame which also has rocking base connections.

The engineers were instrumental in encouraging plant that would have been positioned in a basement to be placed on the roof, allowing the proposed basement to be removed from the scheme. This enabled the building to be constructed off a shallow gravel layer, avoiding both the expensive basement and costly piled foundations.

Is there a behind the scenes story?

'Our behind the scenes story is quite literally what is going on behind the scenes: The huge amount of world class, comprehensive, cutting edge engineering that went into this building, ultimately to be hidden by the stunning architecture,' Shannon said.

Southbase Construction's willingness to back their 'radical suggestions' proved crucial.

'Our first radical suggestion was to delete the basement and put all of the plant on the roof,' Shannon said. 'Although this was challenging for the mechanical services engineers at Powell Fenwick, we understand from one of the CCC clients that the change saved the project approximately $5 million.'

According to Lewis the biggest challenge was a 'tight programme'.

'It was a tight programme because the delivery had stalled for so many years … trying to get it to work from a budget perspective on time. The construction was very tight, that was challenging, the budget was challenging too … very tight specifications in the structure had to be able to handle large earthquakes. The architects have done an exceptional job in the detail of everything from the facade to the interior stairs.'

Trappitt has won many awards this year for her other work, including as the lead engineer on artist Lonnie Hutchinson's Kakahu Façade at the Justice Precinct, which won her the Engineering NZ Engineering Creativity ENVI award.

For the design, full-scale prototype testing was undertaken, simulating wind loading, of more than 1000 aluminium feathers.

'Although we had worked previously with Lonnie pro bono on her FESTA installation 'I like your form', we were actually approached to help with the Kakahu façade by Fletcher Construction and specialist sub-contractor Prometal Industries just before fabrication commenced,' explained Trappitt.

'Our role was a background one, carrying out the structural verification of the support structure. If done well, no-one should notice or give a second thought to the support sitting in behind the beautiful feather cloak.'

Most importantly to her, in September she was highly commended for the NAWIC Supreme award.

'This was in recognition of my efforts encouraging girls to consider a career in engineering.'

Structural engineers have not made headlines in Canterbury over the past nine years for positive reasons.

'The last nine years has been hard work, but mostly positive,' said Trappitt. 'It has been rewarding being able to contribute to the community through helping to repair and rebuild buildings, both commercial and residential. I've enjoyed volunteering engineering services for arts groups and giving talks about engineering to school students. A big highlight for me this year is being involved with the Christ Church Cathedral Reinstatement project, as a director of CCRL.'

Low points included 'frustrations with protracted residential insurance claims and of course before that, the pressures that came with being structural engineers in Christchurch in 2011'.

Lewis said a 'high point' had been the role of structural engineering in assisting people to 'get on with their lives'.

Christchurch-based structural engineer, Helen Trappitt, a director of Lewis Bradford, has won many awards this year for her work including as the lead engineer on artist Lonnie Hutchinson's Kakahu Facade at the Justice Precinct which won her the Engineering NZ Engineering Creativity ENVI award.

Small Christchurch structural engineering firm Lewis Bradford won an award at IStructE, the ''world champs'' of structural engineering in London recently for its work on the central Christchurch library, Turanga. Of the 55 finalists in 12 categories, it was one of only three finalists from the southern hemisphere. Craig Lewis, project director, holding the award, beside Helen Trappitt, director and structural engineer, says they were ''amazed just to make the finals''. Judges described Turanga as ''a building that rocks''.

Whenever Lewis and Trappitt take their young children to Tūranga, Lewis looks around with joy.

'It's super cool, I get a shiver down my spine whenever I go in there with my kids. It's a nice place to go and there is something of interest for young and old.''

Tūranga has won awards but to the people of Canterbury it represents much more than just a stunning building.

'It isn't only the beautiful exterior … It is such a warm, vibrant and positive space. It is welcoming and inclusive. It is a celebration of knowledge and curiosity,' Trappitt said.

Who knows, you may even meet a sword swallower there. If you do, chuck some coins in his hat, the man needs new underwear and even sword swallowers have to eat.