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The Center was built in a suburban car park which the architects redesigned with a master plan that includes four key facilities on the southern edge. Te Oro, Ruapotaka Marae, Glen Innes library and a Community Hall will share a landscaped space which will extend into Maybury Reserve and the re-development of Ruapotaka Marae.

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The building was conceived a large wooden canopy that floats over performance and learning spaces for an ethnically diverse young population. Several hang-out and “kai” spaces, workshop and teaching areas, dance studios, music classrooms, recording studios are combined and connected by a simple looping circulation route. Installed on the roof are 256 solar panelswhich reduce the energy consumption of the Center by more than 50 percent. Rainwater is harvested and used for toilet flushing and landscape irrigation.

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The ground surfaces feature imprinted traditional Maorigraphic device – the manaia – which connect different spaces. Three separate volumes of the Center house different functions-performance, music, and visual arts. Local ethnic groups carved the timber blades that face the concrete columns, while a series of LVL portal “ribs” enclosed in a facade of ACP comprises the superstructure. The facade was clad in faceted panels made from solid timber.

+ Archimedia

Photos by Patrick Reynolds