Merivale Boutique Shops 121 Papanui Road
After spending 18 months undertaking a significant and expensive upgrade of the historic ‘Highway Lodge’ on the Merivale Lane corner it was damaged beyond practical repair, with the September 2010 earthquake.
We undertook the complete demolition of the old lodge recycling approx. 80% of the materials used in the original build. The roofing tiles with meticulously removed, cleaned, stacked and palletised to be reused for a substantial restoration project in Sydney, Australia, and the majority of the timber was re machined and used for woodworking and furniture.
We then set about planning and the development of the new Boutique shopping block, made of ‘removable buildings’ as required by the then CREA Order in Council requirements.
The shops were built from 11 x 40 foot repurposed shipping containers, engineered off site and pieced together on site like a large jigsaw puzzle.
This was a new development using materials not encountered previously within council for such an application, so there was a lot of thinking and acting on our feet.
There were 7 different engineering disciplines involved and the ground was little still shaking while we were building.
The project took 10 weeks from a clear site to having our first tenants operating. We were grateful to be able to provide a post-quake home for a number of businesses that may have disappeared from the city if they were unable to rapidly find a home.
