Warehouse renovation: better for the environment

When we began the redevelopment of Station205 into an industrial campus, one of the decisions to make was whether to renovate existing buildings or start from scratch.

There was a lot to consider. The age of the buildings, their historical and cultural value, and the needs of modern tenants all had to be factored in.

We decided to keep the existing buildings and infill with new warehouses and offices, with Brown Day Group Architects looking after the site, master planning and building design.

A much lower carbon footprint

Construction and demolition waste makes up 40–50 per cent of New Zealand’s total waste going to landfill. By reusing and adapting our old buildings, we are not only avoiding construction waste, we also won’t trigger the operations emissions in the manufacture and transportation of new materials.

I haven’t done the maths, but with 13,000 square metres of existing buildings, I’m presuming that’s several hundred tonnes of building materials that will be productively reused, we’re hoping, for at least another 50 years.

In their business case for refurbishing versus new build, Aecom write, ‘the perception is that building new will radically reduce carbon emissions in operation compared to an existing building. However, those savings will only be achieved in the future, and even when operational emissions are reduced, constructing a new building means paying a heavy upfront toll in terms of carbon emissions from the extraction of raw materials, transport and construction.’

They note that with deep refurbishment a building can still provide excellent fabric performance, with some buildings reducing heat demand and providing equivalent or better lighting and ventilation standards as a new building.

In the case of the buildings at Station Road, only the office component needs to operate at a comfortable temperature. The warehouse space doesn’t need to be heated or cooled, so is easily adapted.

We took a long-term view 

For the development of the campus, we decided to retain most of the existing sheds, and are in the process of refurbishing existing warehouses, upgrading yards and widening road access.

A building doesn’t need to have historic status to be of value; these simple industrial structures from the 1950s through to the 1970s have a sense of history, form and scale that define Penrose, one of Auckland’s first industrial areas.

Station205 also has three generations of history. My grandfather, Arthur (Snow) Bates, started the AJ Bates spray-painting business here in 1953, becoming the technical guru behind some of New Zealand’s most ubiquitous interior linings. He and my uncles built these sheds to run the family business.

 So with a dose of nostalgia for their hard work, and a commitment to minimising carbon in everything we do, we are gradually upgrading each warehouse for a new breed of businesses.

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To find out more about warehouses and yards for lease at Station205, contact Andrew Nixon.