Client:
Saint Kentigern Trust Board
Location:
Auckland, NZ
Status
Completed, 2009
Scale
2,100m2
Project Value
$7.75m
After completing the master plan for the future development of Saint Kentigern School, Architectus was selected to undertake the first project to be commissioned from the master plan, the new Jubilee Sports Centre.
Sporting, cultural and communal activities had previously been accommodated in the Assembly Hall. The brief called for a the new multi-purpose sports facility to include a gymnasium sized to accommodate national-level indoor sports, two teaching spaces, a sports pavilion, associated storage and changing, an all-weather sports surface for tennis and hockey and landscaped car parking. The project was to be completed for the School’s Jubilee in 2009.
The school’s campus is on a tight coastal site on which existing buildings, playing fields, significant existing trees and undulating terrain made planning for an expanding roll a challenging exercise. The master plan identified the steep and unstable bank between the upper and lower sports fields as the site for the Sports Centre Project.
The gymnasium ‘box’ is partially ‘buried’ in the bank, reducing the scale and visual impact of the project on neighbouring and adjacent sites and enabling the new structure to stabilise the bank.
Other elements of the brief are accommodated in two clearly defined parts of the building. The teaching and pavilion functions are located in a sign level ‘bar’ bordering the upper field and overlooking the gymnasium interior while circulation, changing and storage functions are located in a linking element that follows the slope of the existing bank beside the gym box.
Some architectural conjury – more vanishing act than magic trick – has been deployed on this project. The burying of a large volume into a slope between two sports fields has unlocked the potential of the site. The Architects have pursued a bold strategy to accommodate the facility’s requisite volumes of space, address a number of siting and circulation issues, and provide a high-quality and robust amenity.
NZIA National Awards Jury 2011
Client:
Saint Kentigern Trust Board
Location:
Auckland, NZ
Status
Completed, 2009
Scale
2,100m2
Project Value
$7.75m
NZIA New Zealand Architecture Award – Public Architecture 2011
NZIA Auckland Architecture Award – Public Architecture 2009
