Massey University School of Engineeering
Massey University were looking for an interior fitout that would showcase their new flagship engineering course. The project would be the front office for students, staff and visitors to the school.
Within this area are the class rooms and staff spaces, incorporating state of the art technology throughout. The project was on the first floor of an old 1960’s purpose made building for the former Wellington Polytechnic.
The building had an unusual structure with central insitu concrete structural walls, post stressed floor/ceiling and spandrels, and with low suspended ceilings.
The building also required seismic restrengthening and upgrading of old teaching labs to current standards.
The planning worked around the existing structure. The concrete shear walls which became the main ordering device of the plan are celebrated by stripping away the finishes to express the raw materiality.
Ceilings were removed to improve proportions and volumes of the spaces, and building services are exposed. With bold use of colour, lighting and innovative use of materials, the campus has been injected with a fresh and dynamic departmental space.
