Kāinga Ora
Community Lane

Client:
Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities

Location:
Avondale, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland

Completion:
2024

Size:
9,433sqm

Project Value:
$110M

Ringatoi I Artist
Reuben Kirkwood

Contact:
Severin Soder

Kāinga Ora* commissioned Architectus to lead the redevelopment of their Highbury Triangle site in Avondale into medium-density housing — a response well-suited to both the location and its zoning. The result is New Zealand’s largest social housing development: 236 apartments across five buildings, four designed for senior Kāinga Ora tenants and one primarily for small families.

A new lane running east–west from Tait Park to Great North Road threads publicly through the site, linking the individual buildings to one another and to the wider neighbourhood. Along with car parking for residents, the lane forms the connective spine of the development. To the north, landscaped courtyards, staggered building positions, and varying rooflines create an undulating frontage along Ash Street, which is lined by a border of mature trees. Together with the lane, these north-facing courtyards offer residents a variety of well-overlooked outdoor spaces — welcoming, sociable, and animated by everyday life.

The four senior buildings provide a mix of one- and one-and-a-half-bedroom units, each supplemented by communal lounges, shared activity spaces, and a garden pavilion. The fifth building, fronting Great North Road, offers studios, one-, and two-bedroom apartments for small families. Its residents’ parking is tucked into a semi-basement that makes clever use of the natural slope. Ground-floor commercial tenancies activate the Great North Road streetfront, while a rooftop lounge offers residents panoramic views across the neighbourhood and westward to the Waitākere Ranges.

Four of the five buildings are oriented north–south, arranged around double-loaded corridors that serve east- or west-facing apartments. Generous windows bring daylight into the corridors and open them to views of the surroundings. The fifth building takes a contrasting east–west orientation; shallower in plan, it frames a courtyard overlooked by north-facing apartments accessed from a daylit corridor on the southern side. Its entire ground floor is given over to communal uses that spill out onto landscaped grounds.

A consistent palette of brick facades unifies the collection of buildings while different brick colours introduce variety and give each building its own character within the broader ensemble. Up close, the brickwork offers a human-scaled texture; from a distance, it enters into quiet conversation with the surrounding landscape.

Generous covered balconies extend the living space of every apartment outdoors. Balustrades and privacy screens of vertical metal slats provide a light, rhythmic counterpoint to the solidity of the brick, articulating each elevation with a sense of depth and movement. Planters on the balconies weave vertical greenery through the facades, reinforcing the development’s connection to its landscape setting.

*Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities is a Crown agency that provides rental housing for New Zealanders in need.

MoreLess