We take a look inside this year’s winner of the Rider Levett Bucknall Supreme Award, the Resene Sustainable Building Property Award and the RCP Commercial Office Property Award, Tauranga’s Mareanui. Home to the Tauranga City Council, Mareanui is owned by Property Income Fund, was developed by Willis Bond and constructed by LT McGuinness
In choosing to deliver Mareanui — 90 Devonport Road as a hybrid mass-timber building, developer Willis Bond set out to demonstrate that regional Aotearoa can deliver world-class civic infrastructure at scale, which is also low-carbon, culturally grounded and commercially disciplined.
The resulting eight-storey Tauranga workplace, which was delivered on time and under budget, is a genuine industry milestone that makes sustainability visible through exposed engineered timber. Warm, biophilic interiors enhance wellbeing and set a new precedent for what “business as usual” can look like in commercial delivery.
Social, environmental, cultural and economic outcomes were integrated from day one — an all-electric, high-performance building with major lifecycle carbon reductions delivered through strong partnerships with suppliers, Tauranga City Council and mana whenua.
The degree of difficulty was high, with challenging ground conditions and evolving mass-timber fire guidance demanding early, ongoing coordination with Fire & Emergency NZ, peer reviewers and specialists to protect consenting and programme certainty.
Design innovations include stepped massing and articulation that is sympathetic to the neighbours. An activated corner strengthens pedestrian connection. The ground floor, with a café, is transparent and permeable with a through-site link and generous entry that supports civic presence and vibrant community connection.
The eight-storey building’s warm, mass-timber interior and high-performing workplace environment have exceeded expectations, supporting staff wellbeing and creating a space people genuinely enjoy working in.
Most steel and concrete is replaced with locally sourced timber, prefabricated to millimetric precision and assembled like a high-performance kitset. Timber’s lightweight efficiency halved foundation loads, which was critical given the ground conditions. Repeatable floor-plates plus simple structure reduced waste, lifting the quality control and derisking programme.
Installing the façade immediately after each floor enabled the fitout to progress at pace. Exposed columns, timber-batten ceilings, quality ground-floor tiling and a feature staircase deliver warm, high-quality civic interiors.
Mareanui — 90 Devonport Road is sustainability delivered with rigour: practical, measurable, and deeply connected to place. The opportunity for carbon emissions reduction through mass timber was identified early in the design of the building and presented to Tauranga City Council for its backing.
A peer-reviewed lifecycle assessment was used to identify and measure direct, indirect and up/downstream emissions (termed scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions). The building’s thermal envelope was optimised for energy, comfort, daylight and views, and thermal modelling helped deliver a cost-efficient façade solution. A high-transparency glass was used on the southern aspect to improve daylight, which modelling indicates is provided to more than 85 per cent of the occupied floor area.
Operational performance is equally strong: the building is fully electric, delivering an estimated 70 per cent reduction in operational carbon, supported by thermal wheel ventilation and water-efficient design with rainwater harvesting to halve potable water demand.
Sustainable transport is prioritised through reduced car parking, EV bays and high-quality end-of-trip facilities. Cultural outcomes are embedded through partnership with mana whenua, integrating Tauranga Moana narratives into façade, interiors and wayfinding, creating a civic building that reflects Te Ao Māori principles and community identity.
Mareanui has delivered outstanding value as a fit-for-purpose civic workplace. The fully integrated base-build and fit-out approach enabled early customisation to Council’s operational needs and resulted in a seamless move-in and handover on the exact day specified. Its end-of-trip facilities encourage active commuting, and the building’s inter-tenancy stairwell, onsite café and break-out areas on each floor encourage connection.
The building has unified more than 850 staff under one roof for the first time in over a decade, strengthening collaboration and service delivery, while reducing overheads
MAREANUI — 90 DEVONPORT ROAD
90 Devonport Rd, Tauranga
OWNER PROPERTY INCOME FUND
DEVELOPER WILLIS BOND
CONSTRUCTION LT MCGUINNESS
ARCHITECT WARREN AND MAHONEY
SERVICE, FIRE & MECHANICAL ENGINEERS BECA
STRUCTURAL ENGINEER DUNNING THORNTON CONSULTANTS
BUILDING ENCLOSURE ENGINEER MOTT MACDONALD
QUANTITY SURVEYOR RIDER LEVETT BUCKNALL
PROJECT MANAGER WILLIS BOND