These are Wellington’s most earthquake-safe apartments. Should more developers follow suit?

Wellington’s newest apartment block has panoramic views and oak floors, but more importantly, all 16 storeys would be safe in a 1-in-1000-year earthquake.

Willis Bond’s latest development, the Victoria Lane Apartments on the corner of Victoria St and Dixon St, is ready for residents to move into. There are shiny kitchen islands, floor-to-ceiling windows, and roomy living areas.

Construction on the towering building started in August 2020. The foundations include 24 base isolators which will absorb the shock of an earthquake, while a “diagrid” – diagonal steel grid – wraps around the building, giving the vertical structure support.

It’s the “gold standard in seismic resilience”, said Willis Bond’s managing director David McGuinness.​ The development is the first base-isolated apartment building in Wellington and the largest in New Zealand.

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“Purchasers have resonated with the base-isolation technology as it gives them the peace-of-mind they need to enjoy premium apartment living in the city.”

City councillor Tamatha Paul said the earthquake risk in Wellington meant the city needed resilience, even if it required more investment.

“We know the big quake is coming. The more we can prepare, the more resilient our city will be,” she said.

Base isolators were worth the extra investment “to protect human life and ensure the building stays intact through a large earthquake”.

The base isolators and diagrid that give the building earthquake resilience are expensive pieces of technology. They’re becoming more common in large commercial developments, but have rarely been used for apartments.

Last week McGuinness told Wellington’s district plan commissioners the development would not be feasible in today’s market.

The expensive base isolators required “benefits of scale” in terms of a large apartment building, he told commissioners. Willis Bond had to ask special permission and prove design excellence to get 16 storeys of height for Victoria Lane.

“We would need 20 storeys now to make this kind of development economic,” he said.

He asked commissioners to allow “maximum flexibility around height within reason”, and said specific limits of levels or metres were too prescribed and could limit resilient, high-quality developments in the central city.

The next Willis Bond development, the One Tasman – Pukeahu Park apartments, will meet the same “gold standard” in seismic resilience.

Dr Tom Francis at the University of Canterbury, whose research looks at affordable base isolation in residential buildings, said it was “great to see” a new residential development with base isolators.

“There would be a huge reduction in the damage you see after an earthquake, it would perform a lot better than a building fixed straight to the ground.”

The technology could absorb the shock of an earthquake, protecting not just the building but also the contents inside the building.

But cost was a barrier to more widespread use of base isolators. While Francis hoped the technology would become more common in earthquake prone cities, incentives like insurance benefits were “the key” to encouraging people to think about resilience when buying.