Tāwharau Lane Development
Highbrook

The site for this project was one of the very last industrial sites at the large South Auckland Highbrook Business Park, and as a prominent site, the client ‘s brief was to recognise this closing of a chapter with an architectural statement. The second key driver was to achieve a sector leading Green Star 6 rating, a new chapter in the client’s development story.

The planning response was to arrange the buildings to optimise warehouse sizes, yard orientation and for the offices to be visible from Highbrook Drive, the main thoroughfare into the estate. To ensure the buildings stood out in an open landscape, the offices are designed with strong architectural gestures.

The orthogonal floor plates are wrapped in a curvaceous screen; like a Korowai (Māori Cloak) this screen protects, and also like a Korowai ,is an acknowledgement of achievement. The protection it affords is predominantly from solar gain, and the achievement is being the first 6 Green Star rating for Highbrook, and a celebration of constructing almost 500,000m2 of space over the last twenty years. The curvilinear lines and shape echoes the wrapping of a cloak around the body, expressed with contrasting lighter and darker colours as traditionally used. The treatment of the warehouses is recessive, and echoes the same curved lines of the screens.