New Sustainable Apartment Development For Capital

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

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A new, green-thinking apartment development – Metropol – will be launched tomorrow in Wellington.

Featuring environmentally sustainable design features, such as a wind turbine which generates energy on-site for common area lighting, regenerative lifts, solar water heating, sustainable building materials, and a 10th storey rooftop garden, Metropol has been heralded as a first of its kind in the capital.

The multi-purpose complex, developed by Wellington’s Merge Property Group and designed by award-winning ArcHaus Architects, will be located on the corner of Ghuznee and Leeds Streets, in the capital’s vibrant Cuba Quarter. The existing 1919 Nut Store building will be incorporated into the development as part of the sustainable approach.

“This development is leading the way in the apartment arena. While there have been some green office buildings in Wellington, Metropol is an entirely new concept for inner city apartments,” Merge Property Group Director Campbell Venning says.

“With Metropol, we wanted to create a sustainable multi-purpose apartment development that will be here for Wellington’s future.”

Metropol’s sustainable design features will include:

• A wind turbine on the 10th storey self-irrigating rooftop garden that generates energy on-site for common area lighting

• Regenerative lifts – reducing lift energy usage by up to 70%

• Solar water heating – said to be the largest of their kind in New Zealand, these solar collectors will supply up to 40% of the building’s hot water

• Thermally efficient exterior cladding and glazing

• Energy efficient appliances and shower heads

• Low energy light bulb fittings

• Sensor lighting – designed to use only minimal lighting in common areas

• Sustainable building materials

• Bike racks.

Metropol lead architect Huw Parslow, who has worked on other environmentally sustainable projects in the UK, says Metropol is a perfect balance of sustainable design and high-end quality.

“The rooftop garden, with its own wind turbine generating electricity for on-site lighting, is a completely innovative concept – we don’t know of any other apartment development doing this in New Zealand,” he says.

“And with other features such as the regenerative lifts, solar water heating and the building materials, we’ve tried to make Metropol as sustainable as possible, while retaining all the sophistication and quality expected of this high-end property market.”

The owner-occupier apartments go on sale this week, with an official launch to be held at the Metropol showroom in Ghuznee Street at 6pm tomorrow evening.

The development was given resource consent in August and already more than $7 million worth of mixed use apartments have been sold. Building is planned to begin next year with completion expected by late 2011.

Wellington Mayor Kerry Prendergast praised the Metropol developers for their green-thinking approach.

“It's great to see another green building in the city. Building green is not impossible and more and more developers and architects are looking at how they can incorporate green elements into their building design.

“The Council's target is to reduce the city's emissions 30% by 2020 but we can't do it alone so it's fantastic to see the private sector developing these projects.”

Merge Property Group is about to commence construction on two other Wellington development projects – Te Aro Towers (due for completion late next year) and Twelve Daly Street, in Lower Hutt. It also has several other projects in Auckland, Christchurch and the Wairarapa.

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