Auckland’s Atlas Concrete builds $30m award-winning low-carbon headquarters

Shane Coutts, Atlas group general manager, said carbon emissions were cut by replacing some cement and slag with fly ash from the Huntly power station.

The western facade of the new Atlas Concrete headquarters in Auckland showcases the use of concrete in design and construction. Photo / Jono Parker

Structural engineers MSC said Atlas used low-carbon GreenStone concrete mixes to cut CO2 emissions to 39%.

Atlas says its GreenStone sustainable product can cut emissions by 20% to 70% compared to traditional concrete mixes.

That achieves an eco-friendly footprint due to industrial recycling and low-emission manufacturing methods.

The reception at the headquarters of Atlas Concrete, 11 Wairau Rd, North Shore, Auckland. Photo / Jono Parker

Builder CMP Construction won joint first place in the excellence in construction category at the New Zealand Chinese Building Industry Association awards last year.

JWA Architecture won a NZ Institute of Architects’ local Auckland/ Northland area commercial award for the building in June this year.

The Property Council shortlisted the building as a finalist in its awards too.

Atlas Concrete is a family owned business. Photo / Jono Parker

The building has been cited as a masterclass in concrete, with its curved roofs, precast fins, and high-performance glazing.

Walker said that making concrete was a dynamic act of mixing water, cement, and aggregate. So the architecture of the new building captured a sense of movement and transformation.

Inside Atlas Concrete’s new headquarters in Auckland. Photo / Jono Parker

“Concrete is revealed at its most adaptable, its most plastic, and its most expressive. This concept becomes the organising force of the building form,” Walker said.

Architecture institute judges said the building “reimagined the industrial workplace as a civic landmark, an enduring new home for a company rooted on its site for 50 years and designed to serve the next 50″.

Atlas is 80 years old but started elsewhere at Takapuna before moving to Wairau Rd.

A courtyard at Atlas Concrete, Auckland. Photo / Mark Scowen

The project celebrated concrete as both structure and craft, using fluted facades and slender fins to create a building that commands attention from a distance and rewards close inspection through light, texture and precise detailing, judges said.

Beyond performance, it offered generosity: an outdoor terrace and elevated roof garden that enriched daily work life.

“This is not merely an industrial facility, but an aspirational work of architecture,” the judges said.

Shane Coutts of Atlas Concrete outside the award-winning company headquarters in Takapuna, Auckland. Photo / Anne Gibson

Refined industrial aesthetics with key concrete elements include two custom-formed concrete reception desks, curved concrete walls, concrete columns and polished concrete floors.

Exposed interior services provide both functional clarity and a modern, raw design appeal.

Concrete columns appear as a form of architectural art at the new Atlas building in Auckland. Photo / Jono Parker

A striking glass lift shaft and skylight enhance transparency and light flow.

Timber feature battens on the walls and ceilings give warmth and texture, their form mirroring the skyline of the Atlas Brynderwyn quarry.

Graham Collie, 76, Atlas chief executive, is a son of the founder Bunny Collie.

An outdoor courtyard. Photo / Jono Parker

“We went a bit OTT,” Collie said of the headquarters.

He was referring to the architecture but also the big upstairs spaces which are now partly empty, developed for expansion.

“But it showcases who we are.”

He told how the business started in Bracken Ave as Takapuna Carrying and Supply.

It was originally a distributor of wood, coal, scoria and pipes.

Atlas Concrete is a family owned business. Photo / Jono Parker

Collie can remember many quarries and concrete operations around Takapuna and said the business expanded on its site, buying a petrol station and a number of houses.

His father, whose real name was Melville, went into business after World War II selling sand, metal chip and shingle.

He chose the name Atlas to be high up in the Yellow Pages but also to use the Greek god of strength, bearer of the heavens.

As well as the Takapuna headquarters, Atlas has sites at Wiri, Panmure, Kumeū, Silverdale, Warkworth, Brynderwyn and Ruakaka.

Graham Collie and Shane Coutts of Atlas Concrete in Auckland. Photo / Anne Gibson

“Concrete is not like frozen peas,” Collie says, referring to the 90-minute “concrete rule”.

That means it must be fully unloaded or poured within that time from when water first touches the cement mix at the batch plant.

Having that many locations in what are now built-up areas of Auckland gave Atlas a big advantage, he said.

“Time is of the essence so you have got to be in your local area.”

Atlas Concrete headquarters

7-19 Wairau Rd, 8-20 Thornton Rd, Auckland;6059sq m site also has concrete plant on it;New three-level HQ building designed by JWA Architects;Built by CMP Construction;2008sq m building with retail showroom;Rooftop solar panels make enough electricity to run the building;Won local Auckland/Northland area architectural award;Won New Zealand Chinese Building Industry Association award;Shortlisted as a finalist for a Property Council award last year.

Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 26 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.

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