The University of Waikato Student Centre has been designed to be the geographic, intellectual, and spiritual heart to the campus.
The new Student Centre has been designed to be the geographic, intellectual, and spiritual heart to the campus.
An interaction of built and open space, and alignment with student traffic movements, puts the new facility at the epicentre of student life. This reflects the university’s ethos of integrating learning and living environments. The design also allows for a future marae to be located adjacent to the completed complex.
The brief called for the provision of a new computer commons area, the enlargement and refurbishment of the existing five-storey library, and the integration of new and existing service and retail space.
A new multi-level atrium at the southern façade of the existing building, facilitates movement through the campus, and allows the building to act as a conduit for student migration across the entire site.
The integrated library, information commons, and café environment, enables students to be fully involved in every aspect of the learning experience without leaving the building. In many ways, the design aligns with Warren and Mahoney’s public library work, where a desire to blur the boundaries between indoor and outdoor spaces is becoming ever more important.
This project is the second New Zealand education building in to be awarded a 5 star Green Star rating. The first, the NZi3 Innovation Institute, was also designed by Warren and Mahoney.
The new Student Centre was designed in association with AECOM Hamilton.
