This striking building is the focal point of the Scion campus and part of the broader campus development. It delivers modern and collaborative working spaces in a mostly wooden building, constructed with sustainably grown timber.

Te Whare Nui o Tuteata is an easy to access space for tenants to encourage collaborative industry and science co-innovation while also serving as a welcoming gateway for visitors and the community to learn about the work being done at Scion.

The dominant feature of the three-storey, 2,000 m² building is the diagonal grid (diagrid) timber structure. Diagrids are an efficient way to provide strength and rigidity and require less material than traditional structures. It is believed to be a world first for a wooden diagrid structure of its size.

Te Whare Nui o Tuteata comprises an exhibition area, public café, main reception, meeting rooms, and workspaces. It links to laboratories and testing facilities with the aim of creating a dynamic ecosystem, to foster industry and science collaboration and co-innovation to ignite great thinking and ideas for the forestry, manufacturing and energy sectors.

The structure achieves embodied carbon zero due to the extensive use of timber.

Furthermore, it was assessed to achieve the 2030 target set by the Royal Institute of British Architects of 500kg carbon dioxide per square metre for whole of life carbon. The most challenging aspect of the build was its predominantly timber construction.