Te Atatū Library and Community Centre
Public
Architect: Moller Architects
Location: Te Atatū
Completion Date: 2013
eCubed Duties –
ESD Specialist, Mechanical
Electrical
Specialist lighting
Hydraulics design
The library is a double-height glass box. The glass is articulated by its frames and by the diagonals of the tubular struts that support the roof. It is reminiscent of 1970s’ high-tech: a space held by its supporting members.
The interior is severe. While other new Auckland libraries are divided into multiple spaces for various uses, this one remains a single volume. Its spaces are created by screens and by furniture, not by walls.
A clear division is made between architecture and decoration, this is not a usual library of nooks and corners, no place for whimsy. This austere and serious architecture is enlivened by colour and applied objects on the exterior, most notably sunscreens designed by the sculptor Chiara Corbelletto.
The old building was reticent: a low brick building set back from the street by an entrance courtyard. The new building is extravert: built up to the pavement, making its mark. It marks the end of the street and makes itself a centre, both in terms of the services it provides and in the definition it gives to the suburb. It makes the slovenly wilderness of suburban streets surround the peninsula’s centre.
