The Board of Trustees and Principal at Clayton Park School at wanted to create a building that would welcome people to the school and give students, staff and the community alike, a sense of pride in their local school. This desire lead to the building taking design cues from traditional Maori architecture.

The northern end of the building houses the administration functions for the school. The fun and lively green within the portico, with the contrasting charcoal-profiled metal, greets visitors to the school. This is particularly stunning when the Pohutakawa tree out front is in full bloom.

The architect’s use of bold colour is to create landmarks around the building so that children informally identify spaces. Teachers can arrange to meet students at the “purple wall” in the foyer before heading off to camp or students can plan to meet at the “orange wall” before going to the tuckshop.

The southern end of the building houses an airy, spacious hall. The woodwool ceiling panels provide superb acoustics for musical performances and hardwearing for indoor sport. The hall opens to the west providing outlook over the fields and to the east for a direct connection the rest of the school – providing opportunities to hold events that flow from the hall out to the deck and surrounding grounds. These opening also provide cross ventilation.

The viewing deck inside the hall (accessed via the mezzanine level) allows lights, sound and cameras to be set up for special events, and great viewing opportunities for indoor football.

The charcoal coloured profiled metal externally and the white internally were specifically chosen to ensure that the palette of secondary colours selected for the project would “pop”, the contrast emphasising the vibrancy of the colours themselves and the activities in the spaces.

Photographer: Paul McCredie