Smales Farm B:Hive, an Auckland-based co-working office building required a large public common area that would incorporate a restaurant, cafe and bar, glasshouses and public seating areas.

Izzard Design Architects required a floating deck solution with low height capabilities and lightweight structure that could incorporate multiple decking surfaces on a single sub-frame system.

The exterior public space incorporated 30mm Vitex hardwood timber decking and 40mm structural tiles, which required a level transition between the two surfaces.

The common space would also include glasshouses, planter boxes, seating and hogging areas, which needed to integrate with the QwickBuild system from Outdure.

Outdure’s design team custom designed the QwickBuild aluminium sub-frame system to accommodate the minimum height available in areas and provide a level transition between the hardwood timber decking and structural tiles, which had different thicknesses. The framing was installed over a waterproof membrane.

The level transition was achieved by 3D scanning the site with Outdure’s Faro laser scanner to create a Revit Point Cloud with millions of data points, providing the Outdure design team with all the heights and dimensions required to design the bespoke sub-frame solution, which used a combination of prefabricated and loose supply components.

Outdure designed the QwickBuild sub-frame system to the required 5.0 KPA UDL and 4.5KN Point loadings – this required them to reduce the bearer spans and deck jack spacing, while incorporating additional support below for the planter boxes and seating.

Products featured in the 957-square-metre B:Hive public common area project included Vitex timber decking and exterior tiles sourced by the client in addition to QwickBuild framing and fasteners and pedestals from Outdure. The project was completed in late 2018.