Vodafone Innov8 is the company’s South Island headquarters. At 5-storey’s it is the centerpiece of Christchurch CBD’s Innovation Precinct. The building is comprised of 2,000m²(GFA) floor plates with a total floor area of approximately 10,000m² much of which is open plan office space across four of the floors.

This was a design and build project with early collaboration between developer, contractor, engineer, and architect. We were engaged for full structural, geotechnical, and fire engineering services.

The main challenge for this project was to minimise or eliminate the effects of the liquefiable ground conditions typical in central Christchurch. A weak silt layer overlaying a dense gravel ‘raft’ needed some form of ground improvement technique to stabilise it and also reduce liquefaction risk.

The building’s design is based on performance design technologies and philosophies. A prime example of our focus on finding innovative, cost-effective solutions, we overcame the geotechnical issues by applying ground improvement solutions to the foundations of the building, essentially removing liquefaction risk (potential) and strengthening the geology of the site at the same time. The building has been designed using 3-dimensional model analysis techniques and the level of detail we carried out is well advanced from what is required by the building code.