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Wharekai, Unitec Marae

 

When Auckland’s Unitec opened a marae on its Mt Albert campus more than seven years ago, it was a milestone for the institution.

Te Noho Kotahitanga was officially opened on Friday, March 13, 2009  with the wharenui (meeting house), called Te Ngãkau Mãhaki, at its heart.

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The Dacha: Russian meaning for a home away from home

Mt. Gold Place, Wanaka

At the first meeting on site, between the client and architect, they could hardly see the lake view due to the dense vegetation. They had to climb to the roof of the architect’s car to see the potential outlook. It was breathtaking. The brief for...

Volunteer Nepal

At last year’s Roofing Association conference (2015) Richard Vetter stood up and said, “I was in Nepal just before the earthquake and loved the place and the people.  One of the Villages where I stayed has been flattened by the earthquake and I am going back to help them rebuild their community...

EPL Building Christchurch

As a company that makes cutting edge products, EPL wanted a Christchurch head office and manufacturing facility that embodied its drive for innovation.

Elastomer Products Limited (EPL) was founded in Christchurch in 1974 and its extruded rubber and polymer products are...

Taupo holiday home

For a young Kiwi/Belgian family living in Hong Kong, having a holiday home on Lake Taupo provides an antidote to apartment living in the fast-paced financial hub.

When Dan Kirton and Sylvie Doclot approached Fraser Cameron Architects, they wanted to build a holiday home on a site at...

Stonewood Homes wins regional Supreme award 2014


Stonewood Homes picked up two prizes: the New Homes $350,000-$450,000 category in Manawatu-Wanganui and then went on to take out the region’s Registered Master Builders Supreme Award for the 2014 House of the Year. As a new home consultant for Stonewood Homes in Palmerston North, Kaye...

Metrotile Shingle Reroof Whangarei house

 

When a winter storm with 150km/h winds hit a Whangarei home, sections of its asphalt shingle roof were blown off.
With only the plywood substrate left to protect the two-storey home, water began making its way through the joins in the plywood and into the home, damaging wall...

Designing smart with profiled metal roofing.

 

It is easy when designing a building to leave the roof cladding until last; however, consideration should be made at the outset of design of the Kℓ pressure coefficient factors, which apply to roof cladding and the purlins at the periphery of all buildings.
Some engineers are now...

Pumphouse Theatre Restoration

In a history that spans almost 110 years, the building that we now know as the PumpHouse Theatre has had its ups and downs.
Sitting on the shore of Takapuna’s Lake Pupuke, it began life in 1906 as a water pumping station, a more sophisticated version of the original pumping station that was...

Simply spectacular

 

When Mary and John Washer were designing their home on the Taranaki coastline, they wanted to do justice to the site and the sea views.

They also wanted something befitting the work they had put into their development of Tapuae Country Estate, where their home is on one of 30...

East Coast Bays Leisure Centre

 

When you have an asbestos roof over a community gym and kindy with a playground outside, it’s best not to take risks with it.

That was the view of Auckland Council when it became apparent that lichen could be degrading the asbestos roof on the East Coast Bays Leisure Centre in...

One of a team


Jonathan Walker architect – ‘Purpose-built yet elegant’ is how Jonathan Walker describes IBM’s Highbrook facility. Purpose-built and elegant’ better describes the many JWA-designed buildings in Auckland.

While the team at this well-established architectural practice have undertaken...

Tate Modern in New Zealand

Tate Modern
in New Zealand

At the turn of the century, a young Aucklander named Chris Tate was developing a passion for art, buildings and spaces, and for using unconventional materials to create unexpected relationships that surprised – and, sometimes, shocked. His penchant, then...

Matakana Botanicals

 

As a premium bath and body products company, Matakana Botanicals is proud of its green credentials but even owner Danvers Devereux concedes there was “one missing piece in the jigsaw puzzle”.
“We occasionally have overseas distributors visit New Zealand and we drive them up to...

The Hub Hornby Mall

Development is going full steam ahead in post-earthquake Christchurch and no more so than in Hornby, where shopping mall The Hub Hornby is undergoing a major expansion.


The mall, which serves Christchurch’s western suburbs, is being subjected to a $65 million redevelopment by...

Robyn’s vision

Wanting a home that would see her into her golden years, Robyn stipulated level entries for her new two-storey home, which also has a lift.
 
“With level entries everywhere, hopefully I can stay here as I get old and not have to shift,” she says.
Apart from mobility issues, easy...

The Hub Hornby Mall

Development is going full steam ahead in post-earthquake Christchurch and no more so than in Hornby, where shopping mall The Hub Hornby is undergoing a major expansion.


The mall, which serves Christchurch’s western suburbs, is being subjected to a $65 million redevelopment by...

Matakana Botanicals

 

As a premium bath and body products company, Matakana Botanicals is proud of its green credentials but even owner Danvers Devereux concedes there was “one missing piece in the jigsaw puzzle”.
“We occasionally have overseas distributors visit New Zealand and we drive them up to...

Chrysalis Childcare Centre

Two large trees on a commercial site had proved a problem for development but architect Phil Smith decided to make them part of the solution.
Phil, of Collingridge and Smith Architects (UK) Ltd, says the mature protected trees – a pohutukawa and an oak – stand side by side on the site and...

The Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan

 

In Scope 39 we discussed the upcoming issue of the Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan (PAUP) 2013 containing provisions not allowing the use of unpainted metal roof (or wall) cladding. This includes ZINCALUME ® which has a surface 80% of aluminium, and ignored the large number of galvanised...

Fowler Homes water front gold

 

Building a waterfront home requires robust but sympathetic materials.
The owners of this home in Mapua, west of Nelson, fulfilled the first requirement by choosing ColorSteel® roofing and cladding, and the second one by opting for the material in New Denim Blue to mirror the colour...

In the beginning . . . there was earth, rain and sun

“Earthship Te Timatanga’s first power bill: in credit!”

So declares Sarah Rowe, partner of Gus Anning, in a November 2015 entry on Facebook, marking yet another step toward the couple’s bid to be self-sustaining in their ‘Earthship’.

The concept was created and developed in the...

Ellen Comes to Town.

Ellen’s New Home was built in a newly developed, elevated subdivision with outstanding views to the end of the Coromandel Ranges. This view clinched the choice of the section as Ellen had previously lived on their 5th generation dairy farm on the northern outskirts of Paeroa for 58 years. Ellen...

Sustainability and Colour

 

Has architecture become part of the Fashion Industry and been cursed by mock sustainability (green-wash) and the absence of colour?
A question perhaps we should all ask ourselves and to one very passionate architect, Daryl Cockburn, the answer is definitely yes!

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