The Rise’s neighbour to the west is the historic Lopdell House, a 1930s Art Deco structure described as a ‘castle on the fringe of heaven’. Architect for the project, RCG Architecture, wanted to create a statement building that would sit comfortably alongside this Titirangi icon and complement the location’s sweeping views.

The result is an energy-efficient building that adds visual excitement to the village, while also providing eight retail units at street level, 650m² of commercial space upstairs and 43 car parks at ground level.

As a member of the structural engineering design team for the project, Vivienne Jones of TD Structures originally specified another flooring system for the upper suspended floor within The Rise. Then the contractor drew her attention to a new player in the composite steel floor deck market — Hibond 80 by Dimond Structural.

“The Dimond team supplied all the information and design software I needed to confirm that Hibond 80 was an appropriate substitute for the project. For buildings similar to this, we’d been specifying another system because it was the industry go-to and we were familiar with their design software. But when we saw that Hibond 80 is more cost-effective it was an easy substitution to make.”

Leading the flooring installation team was Will King, Operations Director at Remarkable Studwelding and Metal Decking. He was impressed with Hibond 80 and is pleased there’s another player in the steel flooring market: “Hibond 80 is a very capable product that’s suitable for everything from residential buildings through to large high-rise projects. Given the increasing need for lightweight structures, we’re very pleased to have this product available to us."

“For The Rise, we had a small team — just three guys — and the install took four days," says Will. "Loading and unloading in the middle of a shopping centre always has its challenges, but Hibond was easy to handle and get into place. No crane or hiab required.”

Since Hibond 80 was specified for The Rise, Dimond Structural has issued proprietary software to assist specifiers. Developed in conjunction with the Heavy Engineering Research Association (HERA), the software is versatile, intuitive and as easy to use.

The software tackles the hard stuff for design efficiency with single, multiple span and cantilever configurations for the construction stage and the composite stage. It also provides the flexibility to analyse unequal spans in one application.

To find out more about Hibond 80 and the extensive design software, see hibond80.co.nz