Waitakere Civil Defence Headquarters
WAITAKERE CIVIL DEFENCE HEADQUARTERS
Architectus
YEAR
2007
CATEGORY
Office Buildings
LOCATION
Auckland, New Zealand
Text description provided by architect.
Sited in a residential street, the project incorporates operations and communications rooms, offices for permanent staff, vehicle and emergency equipment storage as well as staff and visitor amenities.
The building adopts the residential scale and form of its neighbors.
On a daily basis the building is occupied by up to six full time staff who operate the facility, maintain communications and facilitate training. In the event of a civil emergency the building becomes an operations centre for up to 40 civil defence staff which includes regional police and fire officers.
In an emergency the building is required to be self-contained for up to five days. To achieve this, water storage, foul water disposal tanks, solar power and a diesel generator have been included in the design.
In the Auckland region the risk of a volcanic eruption is significant. The building has been designed to withstand ash build-up and has a filtered air conditioning system to allow operations to continue in a sealed state during an eruption.
