The Wellington Convention centre is a three-storey complex between Cable Street and Wakefield Street on Wellington’s waterfront. Across the road from Te Papa Tongarewa, it will include meeting and exhibition spaces covering 10,000m² on the top two floors, and a 1,280m² exhibition gallery on the ground floor.

Studio Pacific drew inspiration for the design of the building from Wellington’s harbour, its dramatic weather, and Māori mythology, in particular Maui’s head of the fish: Te Upoko o Te Ika a Maui. The centre will achieve a five-star Greenstar rating.

Beca Engineering, Plumbing World and Brockelsby Plumbing won the plumbing contract for the building with a 100% sourced OPTIM DWV Sanitary and Stormwater System from Marley.

What hides behind walls and roof spaces? Ever imagined what happens when 1,500 people all have a break and go to the toilet?

Brockelsby’s qualified, professional plumbing team work on 150mm OPTIM DWV pipe that will be connected to the toilets. Setting it up was time consuming, starting with a dry run with no glue, they piece together the system ensuring everything is correctly aligned, getting levels correct with the use of a green laser that has vertical and horizontal lines. This plumbing is never simple, it travels around steel girders, concrete walls and floors then drops to the sub-basement and joins the council sewer system. Once checked by the foreman and chief engineer they are primed (pink) and glued into place, water tested to ensure they are sealed.

Once everything is glued sealed and tested it is fit for purpose for a long, useful life. But what happens if something blocks off the system?

Yes, that’s that toilet overflowing when something has been put down the toilet that is big enough to block the pipe. Marley OPTIM also has inspection fittings. Basically, a handy lid you can open so blockages can be cleared. In this building there will be many inspection points.

In the basement, pipe work stretch hundreds of metres across from one side to the other. This is not just 100mm Marley OPTIM, there is also 150 – 225mm and 375mm. In addition there needed to be seismic bracing to ensure the pipework won’t fail in the event of an earthquake.

In the basement 375mm Marley OPTIM pipe winds it way through. Seismic expansion joiners were added — they are the black rubber joint designed to absorb movement, shaking stresses and noise.