gathered together

THE BASE is as much about creating an enjoyable greater environment as a dedicated shopping mecca. The architects and developer wanted an aesthetically unified experience for shoppers, for which construction company Cambridge Construction literally laid all of the groundwork.

"An important part of the project's overall aesthetic was creating large tracts of decorative concrete pavements," says Cambridge Construction's director Chris McCoy. "The concrete chosen by the landscape architects was from Allied Concrete's range."

The concrete included exposed and honed aggregate in a variety of colours, surrounded by tiled soldier courses', or borders. These form restraining edges for the pavement, eliminating the need for cut blocks at the edges, and give The Base pavements their definition.

Reno mattresses were another visual element installed by the construction company. These provide functional water reticulation, but were also chosen by the landscapers for their aesthetic impact. Consisting of wire mesh filled with stones and partly embedded in the ground, these are dotted along the edges of the four-lane entry precinct.

Cambridge Construction was the main contractor, handling all the hard landscaping, carparks, roading, drainage and earthworks for the development. A separate, additional project included the upgrading of SH1 in front of The Base, under the direction of Transit NZ. This was to help alleviate traffic congestion to the area.

For further details, contact Cambridge Construction, phone (07) 870 6582, fax (07) 870 6583. Email: cccoffice@xnet.co.nz.

Story by: Trendsideas