The Rainbow Corner Early Learning Centre, Takanini
By Smith Architects
The design for this Early Learning Centre in Takanini, Auckland, looks to the New Zealand vernacular as a reference point for both form and structure, as a way of ensuring the building is sensitive to the surrounding built environment. The building is split into two ‘house’ like forms which accommodate the centres play rooms and is joined by a central core of services. The gabled roof of the traditional Maori whare is used as inspiration for the form, modernised using glulam portal frames as the main structure of the two houses.
The simple, functional plan and structure is given character and depth through the extensive use of timber throughout the interior. The glulam portal frame is complemented by New Zealand grown Pinus Radiata plywood panelling, a material chosen for the natural warmth and softness that it gives to interior spaces.
The development of a building that utilised sustainable building processes and incorporated sustainability in day-today-life was key to aiding to centres approach to teaching. Timber was the obvious choice for construction, for its ability to create a warm and nurturing atmosphere, whilst being an inherently sustainable resource. The addition of solar panels, rain-water harvesting, natural ventilation and generous amounts of natural daylight provides the children of the Rainbow Corner Early Learning Centre with a centre that is not only focussed on sustainability as a core value, but provides them with a natural, comfortable place to learn play and grow.
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The Rainbow Corner Early Learning Centre, Takanini
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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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