New Lynn Community Centre

Client:
Waitakere City Council

Location:
Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland

Completion:
2001

Size:
1,100m²

Project Value:
$3m

Contact:
Malcolm Bowes

“At New Lynn, the building – a unified ‘community of rooms’ plus a vestigial porch, deck and verandah – has been generated as much by an essentially humanist attitude towards civic place and occupation as it has by site conditions, planning, sustainability, materials and local technique.”

Charles Walker Architecture New Zealand, September/October 2001

The brief stated by the Waitakere City Council called for a multi-purpose community facility that emphasised the City’s commitment to eco-design principles and issues of sustainability, specification of building materials, environment and servicing strategies, and the well-being of users.

Extensive effort was made to ensure the project not only related to the community context but also made a contribution to surrounding neighbourhoods. As such the Community Centre provides a new public square and courtyard, which connect the existing shops beyond, Plunket Rooms, public meeting rooms, a multi-purpose performance hall and similar-scaled half-court games space.

The design approach sought to distance the building as far as possible from the railway; to carefully organise the elements of the plan in such a way as to insulate sensitive activities from noise and vibration and to select materials that assist acoustic and thermal performance as well as meeting Waitakere City’s environmental objectives.

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This building presented particular challenges, located close to a railway line and busy street. The architects’ solution was to distance it as far from the railway as possible, organise the plan to insulate sensitive activities from noise and vibration, ad to select materials to assist acoustic and vibration, and to select materials to assist acoustic and thermal performance, while meeting Waitakere City’s environmental objectives. Natural light and ventilation are used extensively without compromising acoustic performance. To ensure it contributes to the immediate neighbourhood a new public square and courtyard connect the Centre to Totara Avenue and existing shops.

NZIA Auckland Jury Citation 2001