Unitec School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture

EDUCATION AND RESEARCH

• PROJECT

  Unitec School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture

• CLIENT

  Unitec Institute of Technology

• LOCATION

  Unitec, Mt Albert, Auckland

• STATUS

  Completed

A series of contemporary insertions into a heritage building.

This project involved the refurbishment of part of a registered Historic Places Trust building at the Unitec School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. The brief was to turn some of the existing student studio spaces into office spaces for the teaching staff, also creating a kitchenette, administration space, new entry, conservatory and outdoor space.

The project was conceived as a series of insertions into the existing building fabric. The office spaces were created by the addition of glass and steel partitions into the existing openings along a long hallway. Strong colour was used to animate this hallway space, with patches of coloured film on the glass and paint to the inside of the existing skylights.

At the entry a glass door replaced a heavy institutional timber door, and a series of random cantilevered honed concrete steps and a cantilevered steel canopy created a less formal entry to the staff area. Splashes of strong colour were used in the existing openings to mark the entry point.

The existing conservatory was cleaned out, the concrete floor honed and steel window and door joinery replaced the heavy existing timber joinery in the existing openings. Paving was also used to create a usable space off the conservatory.