Aro Hā Commercial - Wyuna
“We spent just over 3 years with Pete and his team developing a cutting edge wellness centre on a remote site with 11 self-sustaining structures. The brief was far from simple. Triple Star delivered on time, and great friendships were built in the process. If you’re looking for a passionate and talented team, you’ve found it.”
Damian Chaparro Director, Aro Hā Wellness Retreat
Aro Hā Health Retreat is an award winning health and wellness facility whose philosophy is based on environmental sustainability. This thinking guided the construction methodologies for its multiple buildings and remains central to the day-to-day operation of the facility.
For Triple Star, Aro Hā was a unique project based on achieving true sustainability. It included the two key challenges of providing complex internal infrastructure, designed to allow the facility to operate off the main power grid, and extensive landscaping and permaculture to promote self-sufficiency and grow produce on site. These two key philosophies of environmental sustainability needed to be carefully managed throughout the life of the project to ensure that the architectural and comfort experience as well as the luxurious nature of the facility were not compromised.
Aro Hā adopts the most advanced principles of modern design with respect to the building envelopes and the services that are provided to them. This project involved nine separate architecturally-designed buildings, including a spa building, five visitor accommodation buildings, a community building (kitchen, dining, administration and communal hub), the ‘Aro Hā' room used for yoga and all teachings and education gatherings and utility buildings. Glasshouses, solar panels and extensive landscaping were also part of the construction programme. All buildings are linked by a series of pedestrian pathways and set amongst a comprehensive landscaping regime.
Passive building technologies were central to the overall design brief for this project and these capabilities maximise the performance of the buildings in order to reduce space heating, power and hot water loads as much as possible and include super-insulated and air-sealed structures and European-sourced, air-sealed joinery.
In addition to the passive building theme, off-grid services at Aro Hā included 450m2 of photovoltaic solar panels, plus battery back-up, water bore with solar pumps, sophisticated control and BMS system, a district heating scheme fuelled by solar thermal and log burners, micro hydro scheme, grid intertie and sell back, rainwater collection, and a biogas waste plant.
