BNZ Centre

Christchurch, New Zealand

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BNZ Centre

Christchurch, New Zealand

Firm

SHEPPARD & ROUT ARCHITECTS

Type

Commercial › Retail

STATUS

Built

YEAR

2017

The BNZ Centre is a large retail and office development taking up almost half a city block in the centre of Christchurch in the new retail precinct constructed after the major 2011 earthquake that devastated most of the central city. It is designed around a network of laneways and arcades, which link with existing and future planned pedestrian public passages winding through the urban fabric of Christchurch. At the heart is a public courtyard - a new gathering space for the city out of the prevailing winds. The architecture is designed to maximize sunlight access into the courtyard and lanes by stepping the buildings to the north and building up to the south, east and west. Layers of balconies facing into the courtyard create a theatrical space for the urban spectacle of promenading, performance and encounter.

The carpark is lifted up to the first floor to free the ground for people. Screened by a colourful, festive, folded screen, as a memory of the container mall previously on the site, it visually separates the upper office floors above from retail below. The offices are large floor plates of up to 3000m² per floor arranged to accommodate government departments and major company headquarters. Office spaces are designed to ensure all areas are kept close to the exterior to maximise daylighting and views for the inhabitants, providing a pleasant, sustainable work environment with generous balconies and intriguing connections to the surroundings. The street frontages relate to their orientation and context with inflections, colour, proportions and screening, referring in places to Christchurch history of heavily modelled brise soleil layered vertically oriented forms in a new lighter weight language. This light weight approach to buildings partly as a response to the earthquakes has resulted in a steel and glass building clad in perforated screens, dematerialising the mass and making the whole complex porous, open and transparent to the public spaces.

Products used:
Rammed aggregate piles
Eccentrically braced frame steel structure
Comflor concrete floors
Structurally glazed curtain wall
Perforated aluminium sheet balustrades, soffits, ceilings, wall panels, etc.
Profiled metal roofing

Team:
Jasper van der Lingen, Director
Martin Henkes, Associate
James Simpson, Architect

Awards:
NZIA Local Architecture Award 2017

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BNZ Centre

Christchurch, New Zealand

BNZ Centre

Christchurch, New Zealand

Product Spec Sheet

Collaborating Firms

Team