Three Trees Learning Centre, Rolleston, Christchurch

By Smith Architects

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Three Trees Learning Centre, Rolleston, Christchurch banner

The ‘Three Trees’ Early Learning Centre in Christchurch, New Zealand, embraces a natural approach that focuses on providing children with experiences to learn from and grow within nature. The pedagogy of the centre focuses on “child-centered learning through play that embraces the great outdoors”, and this philosophy has been carried through in the architectural approach to the design of this Early Learning Centre.

The most striking feature of the centre is its sculptural modulating roof. The folding timber geometry works to soften and break up the mass of the building, extending the geometry of the canopy of trees from around the site into the built structure. Timber features as the dominant material throughout the building’s façade for both its visual warmth and softness, as well as for maximum carbon sequestration (also achieved through timber structure).

The building site originally featured many large mature trees, and it was important to retain as many of these as possible. Careful planning and orientation mean the building is nestled into the site without having to remove an excessive number of trees, and children can play amongst a natural environment which also features reinstated native planting. Any trees that were removed have been recycled into bark chip and stepping logs in the playground. Part of the garden has been left untouched, to create a more natural and wild outdoor experience for children in contrast to the landscaped playgrounds.

Internally, the classrooms have been arranged to provide flexibility in room sizes. The six classrooms have been designed with the idea of sharing services, with main play spaces separated with folding walls so they can be adjusted for different group sizes. The design maximises daylight and natural ventilation in deep plan rooms through an extensively glazed façade, which helps ensure a healthy indoor environment is maintained whilst also making the building efficient to run.

Client: CPMC Ltd, Three Trees Learning Centre
Location: Rolleston, Christchurch, New Zealand

Construction cost: Confidential
Area: 970m²
Programme: Completed 2019

Project Team: Phil Smith, Yolande Kromhout, Akash Kumar

Construction by: Bindon Construction
Image Credit: Mark Scowen

Three Trees Learning Centre, Rolleston, Christchurch

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Three Trees Learning Centre, Rolleston, Christchurch

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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.