By Studio Pacific Architecture
Constructed in 1970, the twelve-storey Aorangi House building, situated on the edge of Wellington’s CBD, was completely refurbished in 2008, utilising the latest green building principles to give the building a new lease of life for tenants Beca.
Externally, a crisp new double glazed curtain wall system in black powder-coated aluminium, with striking red glass panels, gives the building a contemporary and vivid aesthetic. An innovative plaster system significantly improves its thermal performance. Sunshading louvres cover the building on three sides, providing extensive shading from the summer heat while still allowing the maximum amount of daylight into the building as well as panoramic views of the sea, city, and hillside.
Internally, the office floors were stripped back to bare concrete to maximise the ceiling height available and avoid the monotony of uniform suspended ceilings. The thermal mass of the exposed concrete also creates a more constant temperature throughout without the need for air conditioning. The building continues to utilise mainly natural ventilation across the open plan floor space. A restrained palette of black, white and minimal accent colours extends the bold coloured grid of the building’s exterior through into its interior.
Transformed by its new design into a contemporary, graphic feature building, Aorangi House demonstrates the way forward in renovating Wellington’s aging buildings through careful consideration of sustainable building issues and intelligent design interventions.
Shaping Our Pacific Future – We are a cross-disciplinary architecture, interior, landscape and urban design practice shaping a more sustainable and people-centric built environment across the buildings, neighbourhoods, cities, and landscapes of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Studio Pacific was established in 1992 by friends and colleagues Evžen Novák, Nick Barratt-Boyes, and Stephen McDougall. After working in the UK and Europe, the three architects were drawn back home by a shared desire to form a collaborative and innovative practice in Te Whanganui-a-Tara – Wellington.
They opened an architecture studio ‘of the Pacific’, applying their creativity to projects that engaged with, and elevated, context and culture. Over the years, this has grown into a compelling manifesto to shape our collective Pacific future, where people and the planet are at the heart of our built environment.
Today, we are a team of around 100 – including architects, urban designers, landscape architects, interior designers and business professionals. We bring diversity in thinking and design, and a democratic culture ensures clever ideas come from all corners of the practice, not necessarily from those who have been here the longest.
Open-minded, collaborative and creative, our practice has evolved into a leading and award-winning business, working on a wide range of exciting projects that seek to make Aotearoa New Zealand a better place.