Winning branch design

Project: Botany Toyota

NZ Wood-Resene Timber Design Awards: Commercial Design Award Winner

Designed by: Woodhams Meikle Zhan Architects

Judges comments:

Timber products were chosen for their ability to enhance both the workplace and visitor experience. 

The portal frame structure is practical, simple and elegant and demonstrates the flexibility of engineered timber.

From the architects:

Departing from traditional car showroom design, where vehicle service is treated as ancillary space, our design communicates not only the new car models on display, but also the service component on offer.

The project design emerged from the clients desire to achieve a point of difference for their new 3000m² facility; and from the Toyota brand logo describing “The Toyota Way”.

This features a tree with 12 branches – each one representing a maxim of the company – including 'Respect for the Planet’, ‘Exceed Expectations’, ‘Constant Innovation’, ‘Enriching Lives’. 

To reflect a growing demand for environmental responsibility and to provide a friendly workplace and visitor experience, Toyota has incorporated timber into their standard suite of finishes. 

Wood also provides a convenient contrast to the shiny steel finish of the cars themselves and the Service Workshop equipment, both of which the client was keen to highlight.

The portals use  the efficient, low cost LVL technology to its maximum by incorporating selected veneer to the exterior faces; box beam construction for the tapered portal legs; a split ‘V’ arrangement lends strength and robustness to the portals themselves, while also reducing the span of the LVL purlins at roof level. 

Rooflights located each side of the portals provide natural light and highlight the timber as a feature.

The two buildings also utilise timber frame construction for walls, lined externally with plywood, which provides the bracing and forms a rigid air barrier clad with self-adhesive Weathersheild wrap and long-run steel cladding. 

The porte-cochère canopy uses lightweight timber trusses to form an inverted ‘hipped roof’ as the third element im the collection of simple volumes, creating a tension between them.

Story by: Trendsideas

Photography by: Michael Ng