| Project
type: Hall
Client: Te
Akau ki Papamoa
When Ahead Buildings won the contract to build
a hall at Te Akau ki Papamoa, certain natural features were an
integral part of the design concept. For a start, the hall needed
to fit into a very small space. Then there was a Phoenix palm
in the school grounds that had to be incorporated into the hall’s
design, and the surrounding Papamoa hills, which are sacred to
the local iwi, needed to be visible from inside. What’s
more, the local community and the pupils at the school were heavily
involved in the consultation process over what the hall would
look like.
The school was less than four years old and had
received some SPG funding when it put out a design/build tender
for a hall. Ahead Buildings came up with a multi-purpose hall,
which includes a stage, and adjoins the school’s administration
block. Large windows were installed down the side of the hall,
offering a view out towards the hills.
Ensuring that the hall could be built around
the Phoenix palm without damaging it during the building process
was something of a challenge, and the source of some sleepless
nights for Ahead. One morning during the tender process the team
rushed down to Papamoa with a measuring tape to check they had
the angles correct; fortunately, this double-checking showed they
were within 30 centimetres of the tree. Partway into the project,
Ahead discovered that the existing administration block had significant
problems with leaking, with water in the internal gutters flowing
the wrong way. The company fixed the guttering system and the
new hall has not been affected by the leaks.
There were other challenges, along the way, too.
With the project underway, the school realised its fund-raising
was going to fall short of delivering all the planned facilities.
Building of the hall itself was completed, but the adjoining amenity
areas weren’t finished until nearly two years later, when
a storeroom, kitchen, green room and ablution area were added.
Vince Butler, chairman of the school’s board of trustees,
says Ahead was very flexible about the school’s needs and
funding capabilities, and very accommodating about what the community
and school pupils wanted for their hall. “The beautiful
thing about using Ahead Buildings was that it was like a turnkey
operation,” he says. “They had everything in house
and the result was if there was any sort of variation that we
needed, it happened within Ahead. So there was no need to jump
in and out of other companies. That was very, very useful for
the school, especially given the nature of a school and how it’s
headed up.” Like all of Ahead Buildings’ gymnasiums,
the hall has a sprung floor, acoustic ceiling and timber frame.
Like all Ahead’s gyms, too, it’s a green building.
And it’s given Te Akau ki Papamoa a place to hold celebrations
at any time of the day and in any weather. “Prior to that
the school couldn’t come together as a school and have celebrations
of learning or music or drama,” Butler says.
- The school hall looks out to the Papamoa hills, which are
sacred to the local iw
- Rather than remove a Phoenix palm planted on the site, the
hall was built around the palm so it can be seen from indoors
- The local community and school pupils contributed their ideas
for the design of the hall
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