The Jasmax-designed Western Springs College Ngā Puna o Waiōrea Redevelopment took home the Ted McCoy Award for Education at the 2020 New Zealand Architecture Awards. 

In a reshaped campus designed to respond to ever-changing requirements, Jasmax has created a physical environment in tune with the school’s pedagogical approach.

Jury citation

Can you place 1400 students in one large space and conduct 40 different classes at once? In the main building of this rebuilt high school, evidently you can, and that is not to mention the activities in the library and a slightly separated gymnasium. The architects have responded to the challenges of the Innovative Learning Environment, and the process of cultural and community engagement, with a high degree of skill, craft and patience. Incorporating Waioteao, the te reo Māori Immersion unit, and the Whare Tapere multi-purpose performance space, the redeveloped Western Springs College Ngā Puna o Waiōrea is a great human ark setting sail into the future of education. Perhaps some apple trees could have been included as outdoor teaching spaces, as timeless complement to such considerable contemporary achievement.

Jasmax project description

This new coeducational, co-governance secondary school, alongside a Māori-immersion kura and TAPAC performing arts centre replaces a high school built in 1963 on a landfill site over a historic lava flow. The 10,390m² redevelopment caters for a roll of 1700 students, future-proofed for a roll of 2500. The rebuild was an opportunity for the school to become an Innovative Learning Environment, spatially organised into four elements: a three-storey teaching and learning building; a new gymnasium; a two-storey teaching and learning building for Waiōrea; and the Whare Tapere multi-purpose performance space.

Main building floors are designed as ‘learning hubs’ or ‘communities’, within which are teaching spaces, meeting pods, presentation and resource rooms, teacher workrooms, and recycling and hydration stations. Consequent to the desire to involve artists in the redevelopment, Graham Tipene (Ngāti Whātua) and master carver Sunnah Thompson (Te Kawerau ā Maki) contributed to the project. Extensive sustainability measures included: workshops and energy modelling; the restoration of the ecology of adjacent Meola Creek and remediation of the historic landfill site; rainwater harvesting for landscape irrigation and stormwater management through surface swales; the reduction of the buildings’ lifetime operational energy costs via measures such as heat recovery ventilation and an efficient thermal envelope comprising double-glazing, sun-shading and above-code-required insulation levels; ground-floor overhangs allowing for windows/doors to be open in all weather and a passive stack effect atrium; low-VOC materials and finishes with high-recycled content; and use of sustainable New Zealand pine interior finishes.

See all the winners from the 2020 New Zealand Architecture Awards here.

Click here to read Andrew Barrie’s full feature on the Western Springs College Ngā Puna o Waiōrea Redevelopment from Architecture NZ.