Iona College Performing Arts Centre & Library
Education
Architect: Stevens Lawson Architects
Location: Iona college Hawkes Bay
Completion: 2014
eCubed Duties – Mechanical, Hydraulics, Electrical, Data, Security and Specialist Lighting. Completed in 2014.
Judges at the 2015 NZ Architecture Awards evening confirmed that the Iona College Blyth Performing Arts Centre is this years Architecture medal winner. Architecture NZ stated “Stevens Lawson Architects along with their team can be justifiably proud to be named winners of the New Zealand Architecture Medal – the top award presented, for the Blyth Performing Arts Centre”. The Blyth along with the Information Resource Centre also received significant recognition in the Education sector of the national awards.
Located at Iona College in the Hawkes Bay. The new 400-seat concert hall is set amidst Iona College’s wonderful landscape, this private girls’ school presents a crafted auditorium and open foyer, all under an elongated curved copper roof. eCubed were part of the competition design team led by award-winning NZ architects, Stevens Lawson. Special features include the curved ceiling to the main entrance, locally designed and manufactured light fittings and acoustic features that will be second to none. Part of the overall project is also the construction of a new Information Resource Centre/ Library & information centre, with additional classrooms and study areas for final year students.
Externally, the gable-roofed IRC building has a strong relationship with the form and scale of the adjacent heritage buildings – built circa 1913 when the school was established – but with a contemporary architectural language. Cedar cladding forms vertical lines down the main façade and flows under the soffit of a recessed main entrance. The vertical lines are replicated with a series of concrete columns at intervals around the building, forming a distinctive grid pattern which effectively contrasts the cedar cladding and black joinery.
The architects have devised an internal planning strategy that incorporates ideas of watering holes (social areas), campfires (group learning) and caves (study), and is composed of a series of circular forms located with an open, free-form space, revealing an unexpected juxtaposition to the building’s exterior.
eCubed were part of the competition design team led by award-winning NZ architects, Stevens Lawson.
NZIA Architecture Medal 2015
NZIA Gisborne/Hawkes Bay Award - Education Category - 2015
