The Doughnut Scaffolding: A World-First Innovation
A defining example of Brosnan’s problem-solving approach is the development of what became known as the ‘Doughnut’ scaffolding for the Spencer on Byron, Takapuna.
Rising 21 storeys in the heart of the suburb, the building contains a hotel and 249 residential units, including six penthouses. The building had to remain a fully operational hotel throughout extensive remediation, with only 28 rooms accessible to our team at a time, while the goods lift remained largely reserved for housekeeping.
Conventional access methods, such as external scaffolding and hoists, both of which would have severely disrupted guests and daily operations, were ruled out.
Brosnan’s team then landed on creating a high-rise-climbing, two-level, fully enclosed working platform, fundamentally changing what was possible on the project. Suspended from custom davits anchored to the roof and integrated around existing plant equipment, the Doughnut kept construction activity to two levels at any one time.
“Essentially its trying to find an unobtrusive way of getting a reclad done on a tall building,(…) just trying to come up with a solution that didn’t impact the residents.” – Gareth Evans, CEO of FarraEngineering
By covering two floors at once, it maximised workflow efficiency while respecting the tight limit of vacant rooms. The team maintained a close partnership with hotel management, providing advance notice of all activities and mutually agreeing on daily start and finish times.
The platform system was designed and fabricated over two years, with full preassembly and testing completed in Dunedin. Logistics saw the structure broken into sections and loaded onto more than 12 trucks for transport to Takapuna.
On arrival, the sections were reassembled, and one of New Zealand’s largest mobile cranes was brought in to install the hanging scaffold system. A rigorous focus on health and safety throughout the design phase eliminated fall risks and ensured all exposed work areas remained weathertight.
“Collaboration was everything on this particular project. The one thing that was made very clear is we just couldn't make any assumptions, it was never going to work for the client, it was never going to work for the contractor, so arguably it was a process of leaving no stone unturned” - Gavin Smith, Regional Manager, Brosnan
The Brosnan’s Doughnut scaffolding demonstrated our capacity to turn a seemingly unworkable site into a success story, and Gavin Smith, then Construction Manager for the project, was named a finalist in the Innovation Category at the 2021 NZIOB Awards.
Watch the full story of the Doughnut scaffolding to see how we planned and delivered this ingenious solution.
