Vert-X provided the structural design for Te Raki Pae Ora on North Street, Palmerston North - the city's largest social housing development, with 50 two-, three-, and four-bedroom homes across seven buildings of two and three storeys, plus a shared community space. Developed by Soho Group and built by Isles Construction over eighteen months, it opened in January 2025 and has since been on-sold to a social housing provider. We worked with architect Chapple Architecture.
Like most social housing, the build was driven by cost and speed. The structure had to be economical and quick to erect across seven buildings, while still bracing two- and three-storey buildings whose wall layouts left limited room for it.
We kept the construction largely timber-framed to hold cost down, and worked structural steel in where it earned its place - eccentrically braced frames (EBFs), steel portal frames, and SED (specific engineering design) plywood bracing at the lower levels, arranged to suit the required wall layouts. Prefabricated timber joist panels sped the build while leaving room for services, and the floors sit on XPOD pod raft slabs with ground beams to the structural elements. The result is 50 homes and a shared community space, delivered over eighteen months and opened in January 2025.