Fanshawe Street / Architectus

Architects: Architectus

Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Client: Townscape Properties

Project area: 7,500 sqm

Project year: 2007

Photographs: Simon Devitt

On a site at the edge of Auckland’s central business district the client briefed a medium-scale, speculative commercial development. Located on a busy intersection, one side faces a major arterial route into the city and the other looks across a major city park.

Medium sized floor plates (1,300m²) have a ceiling height of three metres and a maximum distance to external glazing of 11 metres. An internal courtyard protects daylight to the eastern façade and provides for building servicing and car park access. The northern façade responds to the scale and busy nature of Fanshawe Street with a slightly taller building height and a series of rhythmic yet playful vertical concrete fins spanning three floors, forming a strong edge to the street, and providing shading from the northern sun.

The western façade overlooks Victoria Park with full height glazing at the two lower levels and clear full height glazing with the addition of aluminium vertical fins to control solar gain on the upper levels. The two façades slide past each other at the corner where a glazed wall spans between the two elements, bringing people and activity up to the street corner. The glazed wall is cut back at street level to provide shelter for pedestrians, and links back to the building entry with a short portico. Sustainable features integrated into the design of this building include solar shading, high performance glazing, high levels of insulation, T5 light fittings and low water usage fittings. Cooling and heating is by a VRV multi split air-conditioning system controlled by a building management system.