Architectus puts NZ projects into print

St Peter's College technology building by Architectus alongside Auckland's Southern Motorway. Photo / Supplied

Residential, education, civic and commercial work by Auckland's Architectus practice is highlighted in a new book.

Architectus, Between Order and Opportunity (ORO editions, USA/Asia) by Haig Beck and Jackie Cooper is a 270-page glossy hardback, the latest in a series of books to feature New Zealand architects and their work.

The practice is also in Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and Shanghai and the book covers projects in those areas too. Architectus has more than 200 architects, urban designers, planners and interior designers.

Patrick Clifford, a director of Architectus Auckland, said the book was a significant move for the practice and would be a valuable work for architects, students, academics and others interested in the field.

One of Clifford's biggest projects lately has been the Sea+City's Tank Farm/Wynyard Quarter Auckland urban renewal project, designing the vision to convert the storage and industrial wharf area into a new marine, urban village with shops, offices, apartments and entertainment precincts.

Dave Mitchell of Mitchell Stout said that for many years New Zealand architects published little or nothing. Suddenly, a number of books had emerged, and this was healthy because it provided a big new resource, he said.

Jasmax, Warren and Mahoney, Stephenson&Turner, ASC Architects, and Herriot + Meluish, Architecture+ and Studio Pacific Architecture are just some of the practices to feature in books lately.

Clifford said not everything by Architectus had been built.

The book features designs for an Albert St office block on the Angus Steakhouse site on the Albert St/Swanson St corner. Plans by David Henderson's Kitchener Group for this building, afterwards called The Stanley, were never built.

Perhaps one of the most prominent and praised Architectus jobs is St Peter's College technology building alongside the Southern Motorway, described in the book as a building "squeezed" alongside the thoroughfare "boxed in by a motorway, railway line and two major urban roads".

"The campus is small and cramped with little room for expansion," the book says.

The 1999-2001 job's brought the form of a lighted crucifix to the area alongside the motorway.

"Exposed aggregate, precast concrete walls with glazed slots face the motorway and enclose three sides of the building. The precast concrete walls are set slightly off the supporting blockwork base so that the great weight of the building seems to hover in space.

"At night, the glowing crosses formed by the glazed slots signal the college's presence to the passing traffic," the book says.

Architectus also designed a new building for St Peter's middle school (2001-2003) on the eastern edge of its campus.

"Sitting on a raised plateau above Mountain Rd, the three-storey L-shaped building anchors this edge of the campus. It forms a strong edge to the road, shielding the playing fields in the interior of the school."

Architectus designed the Population and Health Complex for postgraduate research and training at Auckland University's Tamaki campus. This job (2002-2004) saw the practice design a 10,000sq m building.

That was the second job on that campus after the 2001-2003 work on the Engineering and Science Research Centre.

The Waitakere Central Library and Unitec facilities job (2003-2006), in association with Athfield Architects, included an addition to the Waitakere campus of Unitec. The library was designed to sit on an angle and open up a pedestrian street into a landscaped meeting area.

The AMI Stadium in Christchurch (1998-2002), in association with Athfield Architecture and Ellerbe Beckett, saw the redevelopment of the historic Lancaster Park football field and cricket oval site. The New Lynn Community Centre (1999-2002) for Waitakere City Council was for an eco-building where the brief was also for a humanist approach towards a civic place.

Residential work by Architectus listed in the book includes the distinctive Clifford-Forsyth House in Remuera (1991-1995) a North Shore house and the Tetris design for Freemans Bay and Jenga plans.

Architectus, Between Order and Opportunity has a cover price of US$65. Clifford said the book was available at Parsons Bookshop or online for about $150.

PROMINENT PROJECTS

AMI (ex-Jade) Stadium, Christchurch.
New Lynn community centre.
Engineering/science centre, Tamaki.
Waitakere Civic Centre, Henderson.
St Peter's College tech building, Epsom.
Population health complex, Tamaki.
Waitakere Library/Unitec building.
St Peter's College middle school block.
Auckland Grammar gymnasium.
Trinity Apartments, Parnell.