







Client:
Townscape
Location:
Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland
Completion:
2006
Size:
7,500m2
Project Value:
$16m
“The practice doesn’t just think its buildings through, it really thinks them through.”
Bill McKay. Architecture New Zealand No.5 2007
On a site adjacent to Victoria Park on the edge of Auckland’s CBD the developers briefed a medium scale, speculative commercial development. Located on a busy intersection; one side faces a major arterial route into the city and the other looks across semi rural parkland.
Medium sized floor plates (1,300m²) have a ceiling height of 3 metres and a maximum distance to external glazing of 11 metres. An internal courtyard protects daylight to the eastern façade and provides for building servicing and car park access.
The northern façade responds to the scale and busy nature of Fanshawe St with a slightly taller building height and a series of rhythmic yet playful vertical concrete fins spanning three floors, forming a strong edge to the street, and providing shading from the northern sun. The western façade overlooks Victoria Park with full height glazing at the two lower levels and clear full height glazing with the addition of light aluminum vertical fins to control solar gain on the upper levels.
The two façades slide past each other at the corner where a glazed wall spans between the two elements, bringing people and activity up to the street corner. The glazed wall is cut back at street level to provide shelter for pedestrians, and links back to the building entry with a short portico along Halsey Street
Sustainable features include shading, high performance glazing, high levels of insulation, T5 light fittings and low water usage fittings. Cooling and heating is by a VRV multi-split air-conditioning system controlled by a building management system.
Client:
Townscape
Location:
Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland
Completion:
2006
Size:
7,500m2
Project Value:
$16m
NZIA Auckland Architecture Award – Commercial 2007