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University of Auckland Science Centre
Awards Key People News/Insight Related

University of Auckland Science Centre

Client:
The University of Auckland Waipapa Taumata Rau​

Location:
Auckland, NZ

Status
Completed, 2016

Scale
23,000m2

Project Value
$160m

The University of Auckland Waipapa Taumata Rau Science Centre (Building 302) provides accommodation for the Schools of Psychology, Chemistry and Environment in addition to staff spaces for the Faculty of Science itself. It is designed as the anchor of the University’s Science Precinct.

Located on the edge of the city campus, the project responds to a brief that sought to increase the University’s presence at a key gateway whilst bringing together new and existing facilities within the precinct.

Formally the project is organised to offer a generous “window into the life of the University” for passers-by and the city at large, whilst the provision of new sheltered edges to the street and ground plane linkages weave a connective network between the public realm and the campus community.

The building is based on an organisational strategy that promotes social and academic interaction. As with many previous Architectus projects, the arrangement of the spaces in section is key. Activities are organised around a series of staggered “rooms” and a connecting atrium, creating a flexible environment for research, learning and interdisciplinary communication.

This is a heady mix and a welcome change from many sober and less-imaginative projects where the architect’s control is expressed in a repressive uniformity. Here, by contrast, the control that is unquestionably evident is employed to provide a feast of flexible, experiential opportunities, which offer visitors new and often unexpected ways of seeing the building. This is a social programme that privileges the visitor’s (and the user’s) unique, first-person encounter with this rich and complex piece of architecture.

Tony van Raat, Architecture New Zealand – March 2018 (Issue 2)

Client:
The University of Auckland Waipapa Taumata Rau​

Location:
Auckland, NZ

Status
Completed, 2016

Scale
23,000m2

Project Value
$160m

Awards

NZIA New Zealand Architecture Award – Education 2018
PCNZ Property Industry Merit Award – Education 2018
NZIA Auckland Architecture Award – Education 2018