A dynamic building that supports a broad spectrum of needs, from community to elite athletes

The Mill - Queenstown Sports Performance Hub

Project

Location

Queenstown

Completion

2025

The Queenstown Sports Performance Hub, The Mill, is a state‑of‑the‑art facility for training, rehabilitation, and wellbeing. Designed for community and elite users, it integrates adaptable fitness spaces, specialist teaching areas, and a modular low‑carbon mass‑timber structure that enhances daylight, ventilation, and connection to the Remarkables.

Constraint as Catalyst
The Mill uses the demands of a high-performance sports facility as a catalyst for a more efficient way of building. Long-span, adaptable training spaces, a constrained construction programme, carbon reduction and the need for a healthy internal environment informed a structural system where architecture, material and manufacture were considered together from the outset.

Material Intelligence
Mass timber was selected as the primary structural system, with glulam beams and columns providing the long spans and flexibility required for training, rehabilitation and recovery spaces. Timber stores biogenic carbon, while its lighter weight reduces foundation requirements and overall material use. Left exposed internally, the structure also becomes the finish, reducing additional materials while creating a warm, tactile environment connected to the surrounding alpine landscape.

Prefabricated Structural Systems
The structure was designed for manufacture and assembly rather than conventional site fabrication. 452 CNC-machined glulam components, representing approximately 260 m³ of timber, were precision manufactured off-site before being transported to Queenstown. Industrial prefabrication allowed greater control over quality and material use while minimising construction waste.

Digital Design + Precision
The complete timber structure was developed through detailed 3D modelling, coordinating architectural, structural and manufacturing information before fabrication. Components and connections could therefore be resolved before reaching site, enabling millimetre-precision installation with no on-site structural modifications.

Kit of Parts + Adaptability
The modular glulam structural system operates as a coordinated kit of parts. Repeatable columns, beams, connections and components establish a flexible structural framework capable of accommodating large open training areas, mezzanines and changing uses over the building's life. Rather than limiting architectural flexibility, standardisation becomes the framework that enables it.

Manufacture + Logistics
MMC extends beyond prefabrication to consider the entire supply chain. The timber system was manufactured in Austria, with eight containers of components transported to New Zealand in approximately 70 days. Early planning brought design, manufacture, international logistics and installation together as an integrated delivery process.

Speed + Construction Efficiency
Detailed coordination and off-site manufacture translated directly into construction performance. With the components arriving ready for assembly, the structural frame was delivered five weeks ahead of programme, demonstrating how investment in design and manufacturing intelligence can create measurable efficiencies on site.

Performance + Wellbeing
The MMC approach supports more than construction efficiency. The low-carbon timber structure works alongside passive ventilation, abundant natural daylight, a high-performance thermal envelope and mixed-mode environmental systems to create a building focused on health and wellbeing. The result connects construction performance, environmental performance and human performance within a single design approach.