Our brief was to design a Visitors Centre/Caretakers accommodation for the proposed Cook Islands National Botanic Garden in Rarotonga with a latitude of 21.2°.
The building is designed to be highly sustainable.
The concept is essentially one large “twisted” roof that provides shelter from tropical rain and sun to the spaces below and acts as a collector for solar energy and potable water.
The structure below the roof is relatively long and narrow to enable natural cross ventilation for all enclosed spaces.
The roof has a shallow pitch in the E-W direction to give lower ceilings to the smaller more private spaces on W side and higher ceilings to larger more public spaces on the E side .
The rafters are laid to an increasing roof angle to accommodate sun control and outlook for the public spaces on the E side. This results in a twisted plane (curved) roof constructed out of straight timbers only. A single gutter & down pipe drains all roof water to a series of water tanks at the W side of the building.
Locally available materials and building skills will be used as much as possible. Waste water is largely treated on site.
Traditional vernacular building shapes of large sheltering roofs using ancient passive solar principles for space heating and cooling are fused with new technology such as solar panels and waste water treatment.
The building’s sustainable features are;
* Passive solar natural heating and cooling
Solar PV panels for electricity supply
Thermal Solar panels for hot water supply
Rainwater collection for potable water
Grey water treatment in local wet lands
Organic waste treatment (composting) on site for use in the Botanic Garden
Locally sourced timber construction materials (mainly timber)
Locally sourced construction skills
All of the above resulting in a very sustainable, functional, elegant, economical and beautiful piece of Architecture.
2014
0000
