Parakiore Recreation and Sport Centre (Taiwhanga Rehia)
Surveying
Project Planning
Parakiore was envisaged as a world-class venue of sporting excellence. When completed, Parakiore will be New Zealand's largest indoor aquatic and recreational facility. The 30,000m² facility combines aquatic, indoor recreation and sport facility on one six-hectare site.
Inovo is providing construction programming including commentary on constructability, logic, completeness, critical path, activity durations and float, as well as analysis and recommendations regarding risk. Inovo is responsible for survey and setout works for all construction activities including pre- and post-condition surveys, topographical survey, concrete works, steel erection, facade installation and services trades.
The primary challenge of such a large-scale facility was addressing the issues below ground. The first involved overcoming the soil liquefaction post-earthquake. Soil liquefaction occurs when saturated soil loses strength and stiffness in response to an applied stress, such as shaking during an earthquake. To rebuild on this soil is problematic, the building is engineered with 8,000 stone columns driven 12 metres below ground to support the structural integrity of the building.
Designed by Warren and Mahoney, Parakiore includes an indoor aquatic hall with a 79 metre, 10-lane competition pool and seating for over 1,000 spectators, a leisure pool area including hot pools and hydroslides, and nine indoor courts for sports such as netball and basketball
With mobility in mind, there are many features to allow all ages and abilities to access the facilities. The Olympic size swimming pool will have an access ramp to allow entry for all mobility types. The main pool also has a movable wall to allow for various sporting and recreational configurations including water polo and under water hockey.
A Dry Dive pool allows for out-of-pool practice for high diving and also functions as a training area for ARA to allow practical training and education for their proposed Diploma in Circus Performance.
There will be steam and spa rooms, a learn to swim pool, leisure pools and a play areas for the kids. Amongst the 5 hydro slides will be New Zealand first, with a trap door slide where riders will reach speeds of up to 70km/hr.
Another first for New Zealand is a Waste Water Heat Recovery (WWHR) facility that extracts heat from the adjacent infrastructure to help heat Parakiore. This should help reduce the cost of heating by $100,000 a year.
Along with all the aquatic facilities, there are indoor courts for netball, basketball, futsal, volleyball, badminton and gymnastics. A separate competition court area features retractable seating for 2500 spectators and a VIP area for high level basketball games.
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