Project Name: Northern Quarter building
Project Location: Tauranga CBD, New Zealand
Architect: First Principles
Contractor/Client: Watts and Hughes Construction for JWL
Products: Ribon suspended soffit system
Soffit Colours: Off White, Matte Black.
Quantity m2: 330m2
Ribon soffits make up for lost build-time
When you’re sitting in the doctor’s office, waiting for your name to be called, do you ever wonder why you’re having to wait at all? You were told when to be there. You arrived on time. Your appointment might even be first of the day. How can it be that the doctor is already behind schedule?
It’s frustrating.
Always at the back of the queue
Now consider what it’s like to be the last trade in line on a large commercial build. Soffits never get built first. They can’t be. A soffit requires some sort of roof structure to be in place at the very least, so it’s always going to be one of the last features installed.
So, what happens if rain delays the concrete laying, or the roofing team has to wait for high winds to die down or the building team encounters an engineering hitch? Whenever any part of any team lags for any reason, it’s on the team at the end, the soffit team, to make up the time.
Turning pressure into performance
Not ones to sit around complaining, Keith Russell and his Ribon team have made it their business to hone the efficiency of the soffit system installation to such a point that, when their turn comes around, the team can move at mach speed.
It doesn’t hurt either, that the Ribon soffit system usually only requires one trade on the installation and then it’s done. The colour-coated steel needs no painting, just an admiring eye.
The Northern Quarter project
In a high-profile job in Tauranga, Ribon was commissioned to supply and install soffits to grace the beautiful Northern Quarter building. NQ is a stunning construction right on the city’s waterfront. It offers 5,500m2 of innovative office and leasable space that has a design focused on natural light and connectivity. The building is highly eco-efficient and has achieved top green star accreditation.
Ribon’s 100% recyclable soffits played their part in the green star rating. The steel can be melted down and re-used over and over in an endless cycle without ever losing a scrap of material integrity. The soffits are also modern with clean lines and add sophistication to an often overlooked part of the building. In this case, beautiful soffits were vital, as the building is four storeys high and the soffits are a highly visible part of the design.
There’s no denying the Northern Quarter is an outstanding construction, with an external façade that integrates a number of different materials. It’s a thing of beauty.
Countdown to scaffold-drop
What wasn’t beautiful was each delay that took place in each part of the building process. This isn’t unusual. On every building job delays are imminent and somewhat allowed for, but in this case, the programme became uncomfortably tight on time. As usual, Ribon was the last trade in line to complete the area, specifically the balconies. With no room for a time extension, Ribon had to be meticulously coordinated in both materials and resources to complete the task by scaffold-drop.
It was a champion effort. Completing the soffits in double-quick time reaped tangible financial rewards. It peeled days off scaffold hire and allowed subsequent work to begin sooner, saving a stack of money downstream.
Lightweight design, fast installation
The Northern Quarter may be four storeys high, but it’s at these heights that the lightness of the Ribon soffit system really comes to the fore. Unburdened by heavy fibre concrete, Keith’s team soon had the soffit brackets screwed in and the lightweight leaves of interlocking steel clicked into place on every level.
The Ribon soffit system is engineered to order, so every component fits perfectly. This pre-formed precision helps the team enormously in terms of keeping up momentum under pressure.
A solution architects keep coming back to
The architects on the job had received design changes (which caused delays), but commented that Ribon lifted the burden as their part in the process was completed so quickly. The architects also loved the soffit’s clean, accurate lines and have continued to specify Ribon on subsequent projects. As one of Ribon’s architects commented:
“Once you find something that works, you’re reluctant to move away from it; particularly something like Ribon.”
Ultimately there’s almost always going to be a need for a construction job “waiting room”. What really matters is what happens next. When the call finally comes, the projects that recover best are the ones supported by systems and teams ready to jump straight in. At Northern Quarter, Ribon’s ability to move fast without hesitation meant lost time didn’t have the final say.
