St Peter’s College Outhwaite Building

Client:
Roman Catholic Bishop of Auckland

Location:
Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland

Completion:
2015

Size:
1,680m²

Project Value:
$5.4m

Contact:
Patrick Clifford

The brief required 12 flexible classrooms, staff offices, bathrooms and parking. On a tightly constrained site, the Outhwaite Building sits on the Mountain Road boundary, preserving the existing cricket oval and providing a strong edge to the school campus.

Located between the existing Architectus designed Middle School and the protected “Sam Hunt” pohutukawa (Hunt recited poems from it whilst a student at St Peter’s) two levels are elevated above a temporary (in the medium term) on-grade carpark that allows for future classroom expansion. The structure is a concrete filled steel moment frame that provides clear floor plates free of bracing allowing for complete flexibility of layout.

Classrooms are grouped along a central walkway with a staff sleeve on the western edge. The building levels are aligned to the Middle School and connected via bridges to utilise the existing circulation network and passenger lift.

The building extends the language and pattern of the Middle School. The eastern façade is relatively solid with punched pre-cast panel cladding and cedar weatherboards while the western faces are all generally glazed for visual connections to circulation areas and views over the playing field. The staff resource spaces have vertical fins providing solar control and a measure of protection from the big hitters in the first XI. At the northern end both levels have full height glazing allowing a connection to the canopy of the potutakawa.

The classrooms are larger than typical and allow teaching in a traditional mode as well as Modern Learning Environment small group self-directed learning. Breakout spaces located between classrooms provide further options for group work and operable walls in the northern classrooms allow the amalgamation of spaces for larger teaching spaces and group events.

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