Summerset retirement village, milldale

Summerset is a leading retirement village operator, with a growing portfolio of 43 villages completed or in development across New Zealand and Australia.

One of its major New Zealand projects is the 6-hectare Milldale Village, north of Auckland, centred around a new Regional Main Building (RMB) and surrounded by independent villas and townhouses.

In a departure from Summerset’s typical concrete-and-steel approach, the Milldale RMB adopted cross-laminated timber (CLT) for internal floors and roof structures to reduce embodied carbon and explore programme efficiencies.

The result delivered tangible benefits, including a six-week roof programme gain, reduced carbon emissions, and lower foundation demands due to the building’s lighter weight, alongside valuable learnings in service coordination, moisture management, temporary works, shop drawing timing, and navigating evolving fire compliance solutions for CLT in New Zealand.