VUW TRB (Vic Uni Research Building) - Education

Client:          Victoria University of Wellington

Project Brief

Mainzeal’s Wellington team are well into the construction of the Victoria University’s new teaching and research building at the Kelburn Campus.

The building is the first PRESSS (Precast Seismic Structural System) building of its kind to be built in New Zealand. The PRESSS uses displacement-based structural analysis design. Rather than designing the building elements to fail at designated locations, PRESSS utilises small sacrificial elements to dampen earthquake loadings.

The long unbounded steel tensioning strands act as elastic bands stretching during earthquakes and restoring the building to its correct position.

The building is designed to withstand large earthquakes with little or no damage to the building structure or expensive laboratory equipment housed inside.