Vert-X provided the structural design for the Church Street social housing development in Palmerston North, completed in 2021]. The project delivers 46 one- and two-bedroom units across five separate blocks, ranging from one to three storeys, client SOHO.
The brief was shaped by two constraints familiar to social housing: a tight programme and a firm budget. Both had to be met across five coordinated buildings on one site, without cutting into build quality.
We designed the floors in cross-laminated timber (CLT) to speed up construction, and used predominantly timber-framed walls to keep cost down, with SED structural steel and plywood bracing where the structure needed it. The combination kept the build fast and economic for the one, two and three-storey blocks. 46 homes delivered across five blocks, to programme and to budget.