Maritime Square
Auckland, New Zealand
The result is a development which can recall the buildings of the past, with their solid in situ concrete walls, small individual windows in classic orders and solid banded bases supported on basalt as the buildings of old, a place that you would expect to still be here in 100 years time.
The Viaduct Harbour is a tidal man-made inlet created off Auckland’s Waitemata harbour. The reclaimed lands surrounding the Viaduct have traditionally supported solid industrial warehouses for boat manufacturing, fishing, timber and raw product storage, their activities requiring little connection to the main port and to Auckland’s City Centre.
New Zealand Yachting hit the world stage in 1995 with New Zealand’s winning of the Americas Cup, creating new demands on this rough area, which resulted in it being transformed into a foreshore playground and promenade for locals and overseas visitors. Businesses associated with the new water activities and New Zealand’s high technology industries which had made possible the winning of the cup, wanted to bring their office activities down to this man made edge, to extend the city business district down to the urban water edge.
The result is a development which can recall the buildings of the past, with their solid in situ concrete walls, small individual windows in classic orders and solid banded bases supported on basalt as the buildings of old, a place that you would expect to still be here in 100 years time. A green park at the foreground, a shared frontage by the offices provides more privacy for the office users and separation from the water edge promenade. More importantly, it brings back the green edge to the harbour removed long ago and allows all the offices to equally partake of the Viaduct’s activities. Its users have a more private realm away from the promenade.
Project
Client: Francis
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Status: Completed