Advanced Design 1: Environmental Cathedral

Environmental Cathedral was a response to the need for an environmental centre in Birkdale, North Shore, Auckland.

Where most buildings are designed to last 50 years, the structure of the env cathedral is built to last 100+ years

Materials utilise the site as much as possible – brick excavated from the sites natural clay content, and is baked on site using nearby forestry as a fuel and building a kiln out of brick. Once this method is set up, the construction becomes a community driven volunteer effort.

Program such as cafeterias and offices are built on timber platforms designed to be changed based on future programmatic changes, which is held in place by the fired-brick masonary construction. The cafe serving fresh vegetables is in close proximity to the road in order to attract a diverse demographic of future volunteers.

Half of the brick kiln later is used as structure for the ‘dirt cave’ at the heart of the env cathedral – as a material dump. A worm farm decomposes this waste, and the composting benefits of the manure and waste are attained and fed into the nursery and intensive roof.

The other half is enclosed for meeting spaces and classrooms. A timber bridge runs through this space to connect the nursery storage outside to the worm farm, allowing the viewer to be part of the process.