The 11,000m2 Mana Hauora (MH) Building is the first major development at AUT’s South Campus in Manukau, South Auckland. As the first university based in this part of the city, the campus redevelopment is to play a vital role in lifting local uptake of university education. AUT South’s objective of expanding university participation directly supports government policy goals in regard to social and economic development as well as education goals in regard to Maori, Pasifika, and youth.
This building is part of an urban regeneration retail and office project in the fashionable shopping precinct of Ponsonby Road, consisting of a new office as the final stage of a shopping, food and beverage and office precinct, accessed from three bordering streets and rear laneways, as well as car parking and servicing facilities. The brief for this office building was to utilise the southern portion of the site along the 4th boundary of the site – the only non-street boundary.
This residential home resides atop Mt Pleasant in Christchurch, New Zealand overlooking the natural landscape of the mountain and the waters of the Estuary. Designed to the landscape and surrounding environment, the building’s form stands honestly with purpose.
MC Architecture Studio was fully aware of the surrounding environments impact on the building and vice versa. The Wall House has been formed to address, and exist alongside, its exterior world. Its fragmented northern façade splits open for maximum sun contact, while protecting a sheltered outdoor living area from the prevailing winds. The shape creates two alternative wings, one reaching out to the North Eastern corner of the site, while the other leans to the North West directing out towards the view.
Over the course of 15 months in 2010 and 2011, Christchurch, the largest city of New Zealand’s South Island, was devastated by four major earthquakes that toppled a city known for its arts, culture, and surrounding natural beauty. Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects, together with Architectus, designed Tūranga, a new central library project that is one of nine anchor projects identified as vital to the redevelopment of the city centre.
The new central library is a visually stunning symbol of hope, unity, and rebirth that will fundamentally change the way residents and visitors experience Christchurch’s city centre. In collaboration with local architectural firm Architectus, Schmidt Hammer Lassen relied on its vast library experience to design and deliver a building that is at once fortuitous and deliberate.
“Tūranga is the kind of multi-faceted project that layers architectural interest with significant cultural relevance,” said Morten Schmidt, Founding Partner at Schmidt Hammer Lassen, lead designers of the library. “It has been a privilege to design a project that not only fulfills the need for a new central library, but also one whose mission of restoring the soul of the city includes the deep cultural heritage of Ngāi Tūāhuriri, the local Māori people.”
When we received the brief for Kiwi Discovery’s new tourist and souvenir shop in the refurbished Auckland International Airport terminal it sounded like a fun project to showcase a wide variety of New Zealand products and memories to departing tourists. When we set about the design challenge however, it was trickier than we thought!
The wedge-shaped tenancy had to house a huge number of completely different products, which range from the very small, e.g. keyrings up to large sheepskin duvets. Many of these items come with mismatching proprietary stands and nearly all contain small writing which makes them very hard to identify at a distance.
There is also some apparel but most of this is Merino woollens of subdued colours aimed at the Asian market. There was also some food, including chilled items, and variety of Manuka honey products (most contained in very bright packaging with gold accents to indicate their expensive nature to Asian customers) and these are a big seller.
An ambitious urban infrastructure project in Auckland, New Zealand, known as The Waterview Connection, unconventionally put people, not cars at the forefront of its design.
Designed by New Zealand-based architects Warren and Mahoney, alongside Boffa Miskell and the Well Connected Alliance, the structures of the Waterview Connection are crafted to reflect the city’s distinct volcanic landscape and Māori culture.
Waterview Connection is shortlisted for an award at this month’s World Architecture Festival in the Transport category, recognised in particular for its combination of beauty and functional design.
Most consumers do not notice the display stands onto which their favourite products are sold in stores. But behind the scenes, retail merchandising experts are examining your behaviour and actions in a bid to attract you to their products.
We spoke to Alex Doidge of US and Australia-based visual merchandising company EDA to discover what techniques brands employ when creating an in-store display.
“Many brands and retailers forget the basics and embark on bold designs, which actually may hinder sales.
Presented with a client holding a prominent position within the New Zealand couture fashion industry, we explored the metaphor of tailoring to provide an altered silhouette and ‘clothing’ for an existing plastered home with Modernist intentions. As such, this project became a study in finding methods to express hems, darts and trims to create a crafted and bespoke re-clad solution.
At the end of a long driveway, nestled amongst the neighbouring houses and established Pohutukawa trees, an existing 1960’s brick and tile home sat stubbornly in the middle of the site. While functional, the existing dwelling provided a confronting car-centric entry and failed to engage with the landscape or the spectacular views over Cox’s Bay in Auckland’s Waitemata Harbour.
Lloyd Hartley were asked to transform this house into a modern home that responds to its context and provides a private city oasis for a young family.
A modest family home nestled amongst the foothills of the Port hills in Heathcote Valley, Christchurch- a rebuild option for clients who were keen to stay within their community after the 2011 earthquakes. The house, like the section, is naturally orientated towards the valley and features a longitudinal stretch of windows offering magnificent views across the valley and an intimacy with the surrounding landscape. The band of sliding doors below opens onto an expansive deck- blurring the boundary between man-made house and the natural surroundings. The northern ‘glass house’ end of the house sits under generous overhanging eaves giving an illusion of the house disappearing into the trees beyond. A double height space is located behind a portion of the ‘glass house’ allowing natural daylight to filter into the first floor common areas. The house is a good example of what can be achieved with a modest budget and well thought-out economical design.
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