New Shoots Children’s Centre, Papamoa
By Smith Architects
The building is located on the edge of the Papamoa Beach township and our brief was to create a design that captured the nostalgic kiwi bach (holiday house) feel.
A very tight programme saw the Children’s centre designed, approved and completed in 9 months.
Referencing the elegant refined style of the LA case study houses and New Zealand’s own Group Architects, our concept reduces the functions of an early childhood centre into two simple ‘solid’ volumes, supporting a beautifully thin cantilevered roof. The classrooms are defined below the roof by sliding glazed screens allowing full indoor / outdoor flow to the north facing playground. All service and admin spaces are located in the ‘solid’ boxes, which define the circulation and entry to the centre.
Through our passion for ‘complete’ design, the client was convinced to let us design and select all furniture, appliances, fittings, art work and landscaping leading to a fully cohesive architectural finish.
Environmentally the building works very efficiently, making the most of passive solar gain in winter conditions through the low north facing glazing, whilst the large cantilevered roof overhang stops overheating from the high summer sun. The rear of the centre (south side) has limited openings and is highly insulated to limit heat loss.
Ventilation is achieved naturally at 6x building code minimum via the large sliding glazed panels in the classrooms, whilst the admin spaces are all naturally ventilated through smaller openable windows.
Blackwater is treated on site and irrigates a large native planted area at the rear of each building, which acts as the nursery for planting throughout the playground. Rainwater is captured from the roof and used to flush all WC’s and irrigate the playground, whilst high WELS rated water appliances are used throughout the centre to limit water use (taps are 6 star, WC’s 5 star).
Children are taught about reducing their environmental impacts through these features of the building and their everyday practical application of them, as well as gaining a wider environmental awareness through the large natural playground, where they are surrounded by native plants, grasses and animals.
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New Shoots Children’s Centre, Papamoa
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New Shoots Children’s Centre, Papamoa
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Smith Architects is an award-winning international architectural practice creating beautiful human spaces that are unique, innovative and sustainable through creativity, refinement, and care.
Phil and Tiffany Smith established the practice in 2007. We have spent more than two decades striving to understand what makes some buildings more attractive than others, in the anticipation that it can help us design better buildings.
Recent advances in neuroscience and psychology have enabled scientists to unlock some of the reasons why we find certain works of art, objects and environments more attractive than others, and at the heart of it is simple Darwinian theory: if we find something attractive we will be more likely to choose that thing over another – be it a painting, a piece of music, a landscape or even a building.
At Smith Architects, we use these learning to inform our designs, striving to create beauty in everything we do, in the belief that beautiful spaces create better environments for human beings or ‘beautiful human spaces’.
We carefully integrates architectural, landscape, interior and furniture design skills to ensure projects achieve an holistic integrity that meets our client’s needs. At the core of our design rigour, we believe that modern, sustainable, research-based design delivers a successful project with innovative solutions that work for our clients.
Our Auckland, New Plymouth, and Arrowtown offices design and deliver projects ranging from refurbishments to new-builds; from domestic scale to urban master plans; from conception to completion. Our experience covers a broad range of typologies – masterplans, mixed-use schemes, residential; offices; cultural; educational; healthcare and childcare.
We work with a diverse client base, including developers, private, government and charities and have experience of working with multiple stakeholders on challenging sites around the world.
We are a member of the New Zealand Institute of Architects (NZIA), the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), the New Zealand Green Building Council (NZGBC), Site Safe New Zealand, and the Sustainability Business Network.
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