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Architects: Archimedia
- Area: 1485 m²
- Year: 2015
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Photographs: Patrick Reynolds, Emma Smales
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Manufacturers: Alucobond, Framerite
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Landscape: Natural Habitats, Bernard Makoare
Text description provided by the architects. Te Oro is a creative facility for young people from the communities of Glen Innes and Panmure. Te Oro emerged from the community itself, supported and funded by Auckland Council. Its purpose is to encourage the creativity of local cultures, both as performers and to impart knowledge; and to create a sense of pride and identity as a catalyst for social renewal. The design process was open and collaborative, involving local artists, cultural advisors, mana whenua, environmental and landscape specialists and the community itself, empowered to make every design decision possible.
The site, a carpark adjoining Line Road, terminates a “finger park” following a traditional pathway from the Tamaki River to higher ground. The design enhances the public realm and built environment of Glen Innes. A Master Plan for the whole precinct was developed. The community advocated strongly for the new building to adjoin the Ruapotaka Marae, the Library and the Hall – this was characterised as a “body of buildings”.
The Master Plan ties these buildings together around a new public “shared space” (yet to be constructed) which facilitates both pedestrian and vehicular use, whilst enhancing the spatial experience with landscape and street furniture. The precinct is tied together graphically by a “manaia” imprinted on the land.
The architecture resonates with traditional south-west Pacific buildings. The cross-section of paired columns and superstructure responds on plan to the dynamic of the pathway, deferring to the marae, and is delineated by a series of facetted LVL timber portals. This rhythm of “ribs” is inclined northward, to maximise the efficiency of the roof-mounted PV panels and is clad in an abstracted canopy of foliage.
This layering of ideas means Te Oro is interpreted by the community in multiple ways – a traditional place of learning and tuition; a grove of trees; an adzed log, a modern “fale”; an anthropomorphic “creature”, a giant tree-house or a musical instrument. In all these interpretations, Te Oro retains its sense of being “New Zealand Pacific” and completely specific to its people, place and time.
Local artists were commissioned to create signage and “sound-sites” which combine traditional and contemporary music, visual art and space through an assemblage of “sound cones”, CNC carved column panels and kowhatu.
The 1485m2 building has a strong environmental agenda, with the roof surface covered in 256 PV panels, which make Te Oro “Net Zero Energy”; rainwater harvesting, above-code insulation, double glazing, heat pumps, and LED lighting; all reducing operational cost.
