PROJECT DETAILS

Project type: Hall

Client: Bombay Primary

Before Bombay School’s hall was built in 2004, the school used the community hall at the rugby club over the road for many activities. When it decided it needed a hall of its own, one of the parents drew up plans. It started out as a basic box, until Ahead Buildings took on the project.

Bombay School is a full primary school with a roll of 350. It doesn’t lack for space, but it wanted to retain a full sports field for rugby, soccer and hockey, so there were some restraints on how the hall could be positioned. Ahead Buildings utilised as much of the steep bank behind the field as it dared, putting up a retaining wall to prevent an access way being blocked.

The resulting hall is partially built into the hill and has the appearance of a pavilion when you view it from the field — a feature that sets it apart from the average school hall.

The hall comprises a main foyer, an industrial-sized kitchen, which is used for catering and technical classes, an ICT suite, storage for physical education gear, a music room and a full veranda, as well as the large hall space. The main hall is multipurpose, with a stage permanently fixed at one end.

Traditionally hall stages were one metre high but Ahead Buildings has found that half that height leads to greater interactivity between the stage and the hall — children are more likely to get up and down on a stage if it’s lower. Fortunately, the school’s principal, Barry Duckworth, was innovative enough to be talked into a 500mm stage.

Many people don’t have a good sense of spatial awareness, so when they look at a drawing of a building, it’s hard for them to envisage what the end result will be. Then once the building is ready, they’ll often change their mind about what they want to use certain areas for. This was certainly the case with Bombay School’s hall.

When the hall was nearing completion and cladding was in process, the principal mentioned that a large space at the end of the building — which had been designated storage space — was in fact going to be used as a music room. It had a hard ceiling (which would mean lots of echo) and no windows. So Ahead Buildings swiftly made modifications to the space to transform it into a music room.

The building is now used every day — as a sporting facility, for music, drama and ICT lessons. And on calf club day it’s the hub of the school. Bombay School has one of the biggest calf clubs in New Zealand, with more than 200 animals, so when the calves come to school, the catering facilities in the well-equipped kitchen prove invaluable for families.

“It’s worked out wonderfully well,” says principal Barry Duckworth, of the school hall. Finally, the school has a large indoor space, with excellent acoustics. “We frequently ask ourselves how we ever got on without it,” Duckworth says.