The multimillion-dollar upgrade to the Hub and Library has won a New Zealand Architecture Award.
Architectus and Athfield Architects won the award in the Education category for the upgrade. The jury described it as an “exemplary project, tightly resolved on many levels, from campus planning to construction detailing” which “transforms wasted space into a real place”.
The project, which began in November 2010 and finished at the end of 2013, was undertaken in partnership with Architectus, and Athfield Architects of Wellington.
It was a large-scale task, including refurbishment of all seven floors of the Rankine Brown Library building and three levels in the central building, including retail and study spaces.
The Hub has the largest sliding doors in the Southern Hemisphere, which can be opened in response to the weather and temperature, creating an indoor–outdoor flow in summer. It was the University’s biggest-ever building project.
The Hub refurbishment has created 3400 square metres of extra space for student use, which, according to the judges, has “transformed wasted space into real space”.
The New Zealand Architecture Awards is a programme of the New Zealand Institute of Architects.