Te Autaki

The site The site is situated on the main Fanshawe St boulevard, to the south-east of the intersection of Fanshawe and Halsey St. The northern face of the site is facing the boulevard and the southern – a cliff edge. The eastern boundary is adjacent to Hardinge St pedestrian walkway (part of “paper road). Western boundary neighbours a 3-level apartment building. The client’s brief was to design an office building with ground level retail. The building shall have 2 entries and frontages, one off Fanshawe St (the main entry) and one off Hardinge St. There is a significant change in level between Fanshawe and Hardinge St. An existing pedestrian walkway connects the top of Hardinge St with Fanshawe St, however the current environment for the walkway is less than ideal. The landscaping is overgrown at parts and untidy, not very well lit and the steep gradient of the walkway is not safe. The proposal will be looking at improving this. Concept The history of the original shoreline plays the significant role in deriving the concept for the building, as well as the presence of 3 main elements that created the shoreline: water, earth and life. The first layer of the proposed building is a large circulation void cladded with white fritted glass - this rep-resents element of water. The notion of people moving through this space symbolises the passing of time. Situated above the white glass foyer are office blocks, which symbolise stern cliff edges that once stood these. “Green belt’ separating the circulation void and the office block represents life created at the point where water and earth meet. The pattern of the façade is a homage to the geological formation of the cliff edge. A mimic pattern to the Waitemata sandstone surface.