News
Kauri Timber Building wins an NZIA Award
Teaming up with Fearon Hay Architects, Urban Collective collaborated on the development of this inner city heritage building – that has recently won a reputable award.
This beautiful building recently had a win for commercial architecture at the NZ Institute of Architects Awards (Auckland region). Designed to enhance its original heritage, with an adjacent and more modern building rising up on Fanshawe Street, it is one of only 3 original heritage buildings remaining in Freemans Bay.
The original Kauri Timber Company building was constructed 1881 to serve the logging industry in Auckland. The adjacent vacant land presented an opportunity to add to the heritage building, while making good use of a premium location.
The new structure’s Fanshawe Street façade is a vertical plane that is presented as a series of fluted, perforated metal screens. In a nod to the site’s history, the structure is rolled into a series of linked arcs, referencing the massed logs once collected in this part of the waterfront and sold from within the building.
The ground floor fenestration of the original building has been remodelled based on historical photographs and now provides retail and hospitality tenants a large scale visual presence to Fanshawe Street.
We are proud to have worked on a piece of Auckland’s history and love how the finished product turned out - and apparently so did the judges at the Auckland Architecture Awards.
See the full project here.
