Innholdsfortegnelse for March/April 2024 i Architecture NZ

A global consortium made headlines recently with the release of the HKS design for a proposed downtown stadium and urban neighbourhood precinct in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. The consortium’s vision for Te Tōangaroa (Quay Park) includes a 50,000-seat, U-shaped stadium as well as four hotels, bars, restaurants, retail, commercial office spaces, apartments, education and health facilities, and open public spaces, designed to “enhance the mana of the whenua”. Working closely with Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei and New Zealand Rugby, the consortium, led by Jim Doyle and Paul Nisbet of Cenfield MXD, has brought together both international and local players in the sports industry to help turn their vision into a reality. International sports architecture firm HKS is leading the design, in collaboration with precinct architecture and design practice Buchan, local studio TOA…

This year sees the introduction of a new Education category to the Interior Awards, in order to recognise schools, universities (including halls of residence), child and daycare centres, and other learning facilities. “Previously, education projects were included in our Civic category,” explains Awards convenor Amanda Harkness. “But, over the years, we’ve seen a real growth in the number and quality of these projects, and, with that and input from our 2023 jury and entrants, it made sense to create a new ‘Education’ category on its own.” Enter by Wednesday 1 May at interiorawards.co.nz…

TE RANGIHĪROA IS THE FIRST PURPOSE-BUILT college at New Zealand’s most collegiate university since the Ted McCoy-designed UniCol opened in 1969. If its novelty makes it notable, its size makes it significant. The $104-million building, more than 14,000 square metres in area, houses 450 University of Otago students in two conjoined six-floor blocks, five minutes’ walk from the main campus. This part of north Dunedin already had some hefty buildings: the Gregg’s factory, Forsyth Barr Stadium and the former dairy factory that, since 1998, has housed the Hocken Library. Even so, Te Rangihīroa stands out as a Gulliver in the Lilliput of its immediate, two-storey neighbourhood. (Urban design was not part of the brief.) It unequivocally advertises the importance to Dunedin of the country’s oldest university, an institution to which…

LOCATION Todds Valley, Nelson SITE AREA 2.7ha FLOOR AREA 42m2 STOREYS Two TIME SCHEDULE Design, documentation: Six months Construction: 18 months CLIENT William Samuels and Hannah D’Arcy ARCHITECT William Samuels Architects PROJECT TEAM William Samuels, Hannah D’Arcy BUILDER Owner-builder STRUCTURAL ENGINEER Gary Hodder ROOFING AND EXTERNAL WALLS Colorsteel, Zincalume INTERNAL WALLS Autex, Valchromat WINDOWS APL FLOORING Flooring Xtra, Jacobsen LIGHTING Lightingplus TAPWARE ABI Interiors CEILING FANS Lightingplus EXTERNAL ELEMENTS Perry Grating…

LOCATION 188 Quay Street, Auckland FLOOR AREA 1350m2 STOREYS One TIME SCHEDULE Design: Nine months Construction: Six months CLIENT Precinct Properties NZ ARCHITECT Warren and Mahoney Architects PROJECT TEAM Scott Compton, Daniel Kempka, Bella McMahon, Kelsey Muir BUILDER Black Interiors + Construction CONSTRUCTION MANAGERS David Devery, Michael Chitham STRUCTURAL ENGINEER Holmes Structures HYDRAULIC, ELECTRICAL AND MECHANICAL ENGINEER NDY LANDSCAPE GreenAir INTERIORS Warren and Mahoney Architects LIGHTING Energylight, NDY QUANTITY SURVEYOR RLB FIRE CONSULTANT Crossfire ACOUSTICS NDY PROJECT MANAGEMENT RCP WINDOWS Haynes Glass, Perry Grating NZ, Dulux Powders, 3M/Big Ideas Group, Metro Performance Glass DOORS NZ Panels, ARA Hardware, Lotus Doors, Best Doors INTERNAL WALLS Autex, Viridian Glass, Steel & Tube, Resene, TAL Tiling, Kube Contract FLOORING Signature Floors, Interface, Forbo, Artedomus NZ, Tile Warehouse, VidaSpace INTERIOR PRODUCTS Laminex, Cosentino, Hardwood…

WHAT IS IT ABOUT TREES? They seem to be about as divisive as the current coalition government’s views on Te Tiriti. As with most things these days, we are all on a spectrum, and our attitude to these gentle, mute behemoths is no exception. At one end lie those who hug and imbue them with supernatural forces, at the other, the dark forces of those who sneak out in the dead of night to mutilate wayward limbs to restore previously obscured views. We had three Norfolk Pines up north, planted along with a ragtag collection of plants left over from a neighbour’s landscape contract in my first year at architecture school. The goal was to stabilise a slip-prone hillside. I would like to say that I planted them but, the…

Irving Smith Architects continues to further new generations of timber structural buildings with its latest project in Whakatū Nelson’s central CBD – a 2000m2 mixed retail and office space development set across three levels on an enclosed 900m2 site. Architect Andrew Irving says the project, a big sister to the practice’s award-winning studio WallÉ, advances ISA’s research into innovative and carbon-better hybrid building techniques. “A concrete perimeter allows full site occupation, anchored by a service core central to a lightweight timber post/beam/floor system,” he says. “Steel is used for tension bracing only, to reduce carbon loading.” Irving says small projects like these are important. “Introducing more timber and better carbon outcomes to the typologies we work on most often is something we can all attempt, and that’s how we start…

‘Grand’ reveals a certain distance from its content, confirming design as an elite activity and, while it is thought to be generally about ‘architecture’, the word doesn’t appear in the title, although used regularly during the show. It apparently began 24 years ago in England, fronted by Kevin McCloud, who is a performer, not an architect, and the show is now seen in “60 or 70 countries”, making it an international franchise. It includes some regular routines, such as the presenter praising the building and then indicating his superiority with a big ‘but’, followed by a ‘wondering’ about potential shortcomings, such as feasibility, timing or budget. So, what is it about? It’s about the construction of upper-end houses and it makes one wonder whether it is watched enviously, or critically,…

Common Ground emerged as a response to a visceral feeling of concern for our world, advocating for heightened care towards the land, its people and the future. Rooted in circumstances devoid of due care – land management in Tairāwhiti – the research underpinning Common Ground suggests that, when environmental knowledge is depleted, unsustainable practice ensues. The scheme aims to reverse this trend by reinvigorating vernacular knowledge in a tacit, hands-on manner, where spending time on the land is imperative. Situated at Hiwiroa Station, a relative’s farm north of Tūranganui-a-kiwa Gisborne, Common Ground speculates on a future ‘knowledge architecture’ for a world grappling with environmental disaster. The outcome is a ‘forum for vernacular environmental knowledge’: a regional touchpoint fostering the generation and proliferation of ideas. It aims to weave diverse knowledge…

NEW ZEALAND IS A SMALL COUNTRY WITH few architects. Where Britain has 42,170 registered architects in a population of 67 million, or one per 1600 persons, New Zealand has rather fewer, with one architect per 2200 persons.1 Yet, only 68 or three per cent of New Zealand registered architects are Māori2 (try naming some). That’s one per 78,400. Given this inequity, the Māori architectural critic stands in a vulnerable space. Māori critique is enacted not through words written but through words spoken: as kanohi-ki-te-kanohi hui and wānanga, involving face-to-face robust discussion. The dismantling and reassembling of ideas is a Māori method of learning. Yet, like parliamentary debate, differences of opinion are voiced, sometimes heated, but always welcome. An architectural review of Māori by Māori thus requires a new form of…

LOCATION Forth Street, Dunedin SITE AREA 8800m2 FLOOR AREA 14,500m2 STOREYS Six TIME SCHEDULE Design, documentation: 20 months Construction: 30 months CLIENT University of Otago ARCHITECT Jasmax PROJECT TEAM Matthew Downs, Chris Scott, Chris Boss, Rohan Packard, James Pearse, Liz Savage, James Holth, Arnika Blount, Nikki Senekal, Adrian Taylor, Mark Sayegh, Kimmy Deng, Gier Jong, Kate Larkin, Jurgen Eisenhauer, Clem Devine, Aaron Troy, Jarrad Caine CULTURAL ADVISORS Ngāti Mutunga, Kāi Tahu, Aukaha, Haumi BUILDER Southbase Construction STRUCTURAL ENGINEER Lewis Bradford HYDRAULIC, MECHANICAL AND ELECTRICAL ENGINEER Powell Fenwick LANDSCAPING, INTERIORS, BRAND AND GRAPHIC DESIGN Jasmax KITCHEN DESIGN Southern Hospitality FIRE, ACOUSTICS AND LIGHTING CONSULTANT Powell Fenwick PROJECT MANAGER RCP CULTURAL ARTIST Fayne Robinson ROOFING RoofLogic ACOUSTIC PANELS Décortech, Asona, Autex INSULATION Kingspan, Autex, Pink Batts FLOORING Forbo, Interface, Feltex CLADDING PRODUCTS…

Open Christchurch, the ‘annual festival of architectural excellence’, returns in early May with a bumper programme prepared by Te Pūtahi Centre for Architecture and City Making. Fifty of Christchurch’s best buildings will be open for exploration, along with a series of designed landscapes and guided walks. Three special events and a public programme of talks, tours and activities round out the programme. Te Pūtahi Director Jessica Halliday says highlights of this year’s festival include the sheer variety of buildings and a focus on innovative mixed-use developments and adaptive re-use, from a one-of-a-kind youth facility dedicated to maintaining and improving the mental health and well-being of young people to the recently opened Marian College, housed in a former Foodstuffs distribution centre. The full programme will be released on 21 March 2024.…

Tell us about the design rationale for this project. DGSE worked alongside Waka Kotahi to distil their aspirations around consolidation, environmental outcomes, social sustainability and sense of place. Pivotal to this was the shift to an ‘activity-based working’ model, providing a spectrum of flexible collaborative settings, focused work environments, gathering zones and support facilities, while maintaining consistency and familiarity across the six levels. The building is situated within the parliamentary precinct and overlooking Wellington’s elevated arterial highway; the idea of ‘connectedness’ became a major design driver, both in the physical sense of ‘place’ and through the spirit of Waka Kotahi’s role in greater Aotearoa. You mention social sustainability as a key objective. What did this mean to Waka Kotahi and how was this implemented? As a values-based design practice, we find…

It is a great and unexpected honour to receive the Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects Gold Medal. It places me within a whakapapa of architects whom I have always greatly admired and provides a platform from which to communicate architecture’s importance. It also prompts one to reflect on one’s own contribution to architecture. The kaupapa of this essay is to discuss my work as a journey through architecture. I only ever wanted to be an architect when I was growing up, which was an unusual ambition for a Ngāpuhi/Ngāti Kahu girl from West Auckland. My timing was appalling. I entered the University of Auckland School of Architecture in 1989, 18 months after the stock market crash, with little prospect of finding employment as an architect after graduation.…

HOUSE-BUILDING ISN’T NEW, YET SOMEHOW there still seems a whole lot to trailblaze. Before you even queue for a builder, or eye up an estimate, there’s the start-up cost of land. For, while sites have been suburbanising into parcels, land values have somehow gone the other way and followed the steep cost inclines of building. It’s all gone exponential. Folk tempted to steer down the freedom trail to bespoke home-building might well turn off to tackle apartment appointments rather than navigate those windier questions of form or siting. It’s hardly the pioneering spirit but counting up those land costs can very quickly descend Home on the Range dreams to Home out of Range. So why does building invariably start with purchasing dirt? Land ownership is a construct. It’s a line where…

THE FIRST TIME I VISITED PRECINCT Properties on the 12th floor of the HSBC building was about four years ago, ahead of a scheduled walkaround of the new Commercial Bay building the day before its official opening. A throng of media jostled through an unassuming space and headed for an oversized storage room to gather equally oversized steel-toecap boots, fluoro vests and hard hats. We were then herded towards a nearby air bridge and I had barely registered my surroundings. My most recent visit, along with interior project lead Dan Kempka of Warren and Mahoney, couldn’t have been more different: quite literally, like night and day. Stepping out of the lift into the lobby of the country’s largest developer and property manager, you’re greeted with the unexpected juxtaposition of luxurious…