Saint Kentigern School Jubilee Sports Centre
By Architectus
After completing the master plan for the future development of Saint Kentigern School, Architectus was selected to undertake the first project to be commissioned from the master plan, the new Jubilee Sports Centre.
Sporting, cultural and communal activities had previously been accommodated in the Assembly Hall. The brief called for a the new multi-purpose sports facility to include a gymnasium sized to accommodate national-level indoor sports, two teaching spaces, a sports pavilion, associated storage and changing, an all-weather sports surface for tennis and hockey and landscaped car parking. The project was to be completed for the School’s Jubilee in 2009.
The school’s campus is on a tight coastal site on which existing buildings, playing fields, significant existing trees and undulating terrain made planning for an expanding roll a challenging exercise. The master plan identified the steep and unstable bank between the upper and lower sports fields as the site for the Sports Centre Project.
The gymnasium ‘box’ is partially ‘buried’ in the bank, reducing the scale and visual impact of the project on neighbouring and adjacent sites and enabling the new structure to stabilise the bank.
Other elements of the brief are accommodated in two clearly defined parts of the building. The teaching and pavilion functions are located in a sign level ‘bar’ bordering the upper field and overlooking the gymnasium interior while circulation, changing and storage functions are located in a linking element that follows the slope of the existing bank beside the gym box.
Location:
Auckland
Completion:
2009
Products used in
Saint Kentigern School Jubilee Sports Centre
Professionals used in
Saint Kentigern School Jubilee Sports Centre
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Architectus is an architecture and urbanism practice designing places and spaces tuned to their communities, context and culture. Advocates for integrated design, we apply a rigorous and tailored approach to create environments that are inspiring and enduring.
For over 30 years, we have been realising innovative and bespoke projects around Aotearoa New Zealand, shaping precincts and campuses with people and sustainability at their heart. Through a collaborative and integrated approach, we have had many successful joint ventures with local and international partners, and we enjoy a strong relationship with our associated studios in Australia.
Our Purpose
We believe architecture begins with a social agenda. It must nurture and grow communities and individuals, and enhance its neighbourhood and city. Appropriate, efficient and elegant architecture for today becomes the urban fabric of the future – we design for this longevity, to create places that will serve generations to come.
Design Philosophy
While a good project must firstly solve practical needs and be viable, a truly great project must embody a community’s broader cultural context: its urban and architectural setting, its local geography and ecology, and the stories of its people. The more meaningful a place becomes through a true sense of belonging, the greater the value and longevity it has for its community.
We believe placemaking in Aotearoa is grounded in a bicultural creative process. We partner with mana whenua to embed their aspirations and cultural narratives across functional, ceremonial, spatial and artistic dimensions.
Underpinning these human stories is our responsibility to be judicious with natural resources. Environmentally sensitive architecture requires us to be energy-efficient and space-efficient, and to use low-carbon materials and ethically sourced products.
This is a holistic approach that embeds our practice in a continuum of artistic and technical progress, so the architecture we are responsible for will be relevant for decades to come.
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