Low-carbon lifestyle at Clearwater Quays

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Just 15 minutes north from the heart of Christchurch, Clearwater Resort is renowned for its immaculate grounds, beautiful lakeside villas and 18-hole championship golf course.  

The resort is now home also to new luxury apartments that lead the industry on low carbon living. Called Clearwater Quays, the new five-storey apartment building is a stunning example of what can be achieved with aspirational ‘mass timber’ construction. Here, natural New Zealand timber has infused the entire project, both structurally and aesthetically. 

Coming to market in the first and second quarter of 2022, these generously sized north-facing lakeside apartments, designed for easy living, are sure to sell fast.  

Partners in this unique co-investment project are Red Stag Investments Ltd and the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI), which is seeking to encourage greater use of New Zealand grown timber for the good of the economy and the environment. As the only renewable building material available and a natural store for carbon, responsibly sourced wood has a big part to play in helping to tackle climate change. The production and processing of wood also uses much less energy – called embodied energy - than most other building materials. 

Clearwater Quays is an exemplar of how to use wood for good: the building has a timber structural frame and floors of cross laminated timber (CLT) panels. Even the lift is timber framed. Open days for industry professionals have been held as construction has progressed. Designed by Pacific Environments, the building - with two apartments per floor – is visually stunning and highlights how timber brings both beauty and strength to a project. An outstanding design feature is a curving sculptural staircase that complements the linear southern facade.  

“We’ve had construction managers, engineers and architects coming to take a look and some have even put existing development plans on hold because they now want to go down this sustainability pathway in future,” says Marty Verry, Red Stag Group CEO. “It has been incredibly effective as a way to inform and inspire people.” 

Red Stag Investments is a company with deep roots in forestry, wood processing, pre-fabrication and property development. With both sawmill and a CLT factory in Rotorua, along with a frame truss and prefabrication plant in Hamilton, Red Stag is influential in the timber industry and produces nearly a third of structural timber in New Zealand. By using logs sourced from sustainably certified forests and running a carbon neutral production site, its timber operation also sets a high benchmark for environmental performance. This is a key focus across Red Stag’s investment portfolio. 

“At Clearwater Quays, we have been sharing the knowledge, plans, costings and carbon performance so that when regulations come in to restrict carbon per square metre, we’ll have a template to show how to do it. 

We’ve been talking to a number of engineers, quantity surveyors, architects and developers who are already moving in this direction and we know of other mass timber buildings going up that are five to eight storeys high.” 

“We find engineered timber is also faster to build with and is more cost effective than steel and concrete and, with regulations coming in over the coming years to restrict the amount of carbon per square metre in order to get a building consent, there is even more incentive to use these products; we are certainly seeing more people starting to get on board.”