University of Auckland Science Centre Competition Entry

This project is the result of a limited design competition to provide a new Science hub at a pivotal site at the edge of the University of Auckland campus. The project programme involves a wide range of teaching and research laboratories as well as academic offices and support functions. The brief called for the retention and reuse of some underlying building structures as well as the careful consideration of the project’s effect on accepted master plan principles for the campus as a whole. However, beyond the complex functional drivers for the project, the brief also provided a strong opportunity to demonstrate the University’s confident, outward looking position in the region and the world. In this sense, the project was to provide an addition to the University’s growing catalogue of strong, identifiable architecture. 

Warren and Mahoney’s design response considered the Science Centre as a ‘vertically connected community’ occupying a critical gateway to the campus as a whole. Heavily serviced laboratory spaces are embedded within the building frame but social breakout spaces are linked vertically behind canted glazed façades facing the city and the world at large. In this sense, by night and day, the building presents a visible working science community to the public while also providing an essential opportunity for connection between researchers, scientists and students. 

One of the core drivers for the design is the implementation of many years of research and practice for sustainability within academic facilities. The design incorporates chilled beam technologies in tandem with a variety of passive and heat recovery strategies and a full height ventilated atrium to reduce energy consumption and increase occupant comfort levels. In this sense the new Science Centre was considered as a working example of contemporary environmental science at work.