Te Rua National ArchivesNew Zealand's most seismically resilient archival facility

Innovative base isolation engineering technology

Aurecon's structural engineering team determined that base isolation technology offered the optimal solution for achieving this unprecedented level of seismic resilience.

The building features 38 triple friction pendulum isolators, each weighing 13,500 kilograms and measuring 2.1 metres in diameter; the largest building base isolators in New Zealand. These isolators, designed and manufactured in San Francisco, allow the building to disengage from ground shaking and move up to 1.35 metres in any direction during a major seismic event.

The superstructure includes a two-way moment frame steel system, equivalent to the weight of a 30-storey office building, despite being only eight storeys high. This robust framework supports suspended concrete floors designed to handle 11.5 kPa loads – nearly four times the standard office building requirement – to accommodate the substantial 88,000 linear metres of archival storage shelving weighing 775,000 kilograms in total.

Digital twin future-proofs operations and maintenance

This complex project incorporated the use of digital twin technology. This tech captured the as-built construction and created a twin of the building’s operational system. This system enabled precise location and identification of services and components for future maintenance and replacement and was used extensively during the build process.

Women leading the way

Te Rua Archives is linked by a highly-engineered two level bridge to the National Library, which houses the 1893 Women's Suffrage Petition. In a fitting coincidence, the project has been delivered by a largely female team of consultants. As one team member notes, “It's like it's been tied up with a bow, to have so many women working on this project that links those two buildings and houses that really important document that marks the success of the suffragette movement.”