University of Waikato The Pā by Steel & Tube

The Pā

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The most ambitious building project in the history of the University of Waikato Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato, The Pā takes pride of place as the new front door and academic heart of the Hamilton campus. Designed as a joint effort between Jasmax, Architectus and DesignTribe, and built by Hawkins, the $85 million development is the new centre of the Hamilton campus for students, staff and the wider community – a unique campus destination for Kirikiriroa Hamilton, Waikato and the world. It represents a significant cultural narrative, complex geometry and bespoke features, and presented a number of challenges in its construction.

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With a floor plan of 6,500 sqm, The Pā is constructed from massive timber columns and beams, some of the longest single lengths of glulam ever manufactured in New Zealand. In support of these, Steel & Tube provided all the steel reinforcing, along with nearly 2,500 sqm of ComFlor® composite steel decking for the mid-floors.

What this building means for the University

The development of The Pā at the University of Waikato reflects the University's commitment to an integrated and accessible campus, and to a campus experience that includes social interaction, hospitality and culture.

The Pā reinforces the University’s distinctiveness being unique in concept, functionality and architectural design: there is nothing else like it nationally or internationally.

The project started in 2019, but was preceded by a master planning exercise for the campus as a whole, and a vision to reshape the site. The University brought forward the vision for a facility that would be both symbolic and practical, and consulted with King Tūheitia to ensure that it would give full expression to the mana of the University and its place in Waikato.

With state-of-the-art facilities for learning, events, and administration, The Pā serves as a vibrant hub for academic, cultural, and social activities, reflecting the University's dedication to its students, staff, and the broader community.

Large scale reinforcing that meets deadlines

The collaboration with Hawkins began early in the project. ‘We helped plan some of the prefabrication methodologies,’ says Grant McMurray, Steel & Tube’s National Projects Manager, Reinforcing. ‘It was a very complex build, requiring 550 tonnes of reinforcing steel from Steel & Tube for foundations, slabs, columns, beams and retaining walls.

‘Shop drawings for the project were overseen by one of Steel & Tube’s senior detailers, Jojo Perez, and the reinforcing went to our fabrication plants in Hamilton and Ōtāhuhu for manufacture. The steel was supplied by Pacific Steel in Auckland, with the majority of the order made using locally sourced iron sands from the Waikato Heads.’

Maintaining the Steel & Tube site office, Senior Project Manager Heinrich Rautenbach managed both the reinforcing and ComFlor® installation and ran everything smoothly, with installers working reliably to meet deadlines and Heinrich ensuring all the quality assurance and health and safety checks were met and documented to Steel & Tube’s and Hawkins’ high standards. Site manager Junior Thompson worked closely with Heinrich to manage the ComFlor installation on a day-to-day basis.

Strong communication is the key

‘We used a robust software platform to merge the health and safety and quality assurance inspections,’ says Grant. ‘We do our daily toolbox talks and all the inspection checklists, we input that into the software to generate daily reports for each work area that are then passed onto Hawkins.’

Communication is vital in ensuring workflows run smoothly, agrees Steel & Tube Senior Project Manager, Heinrich Rautenbach. ‘Keeping Hawkins up to date with every stage – detailing, delivery, installations – is key for the main contractor.’

For the ComFlor installation, the team used 3D modelling to produce the shop drawings. ‘It was good for collaborating with the engineers, so they could see exactly what was planned and we did the clash detection in advance. For example, we had 10,600 individual studs for welding ComFlor to the structural beams, and we could point to the placement of every single one.’

Technical capability for a demanding project

Using a combination of ComFlor 60 and ComFlor 80 allowed rapid, safe installation as both products are light weight and easy to handle, even for difficult-to-access areas. This brings significant benefits in both safety and efficiency.

‘Safety-wise, there was a lot of daily paperwork which was audited monthly,’ says Heinrich. ‘For the scheduling, we worked closely with the Hawkins site team, attending their daily meetings – together we could put all the systems in place to ensure workflow ran smoothly.’

Bringing both the reinforcing and steel decking to such an innovative and demanding project as The Pā gave Steel & Tube the opportunity to coordinate two trades at once. ‘It required a lot of skill and technical capability from both teams,’ says Grant. ‘It was a very complex build, and when you finish one of those you feel really proud. We delivered a good product, on time and to a high quality.’