Mission Heights Schools

This project consists of the design and construction of a new primary and junior high school co located on the same site for The Ministry of Education. This project is unique in that the buildings and the management structures of both schools are shared.

Project Details

Architects
ASC Architects

Address
103 Jeffs Road, Botany, Auckland 2163 New Zealand

Submitter
John Sofo

Cost
$57,000,000.00 NZD

Photographer
Michael Ng, AIPA www.aipa.org.nz

Project Overview

The design of these schools is based on the “Whanau” concept of arranging flexible work spaces where students can not only work more collaboratively, but where more open plan project based learning can occur. This model of teaching and learning is based on best practice international research which suggests that students in the twenty first century need primarily to be able to research information and then synthesise that information into new ideas or designs that are a response to a particular problem. In fact educational learning experience is becoming more closely modelled on real world work experience.

The buildings are designed to deliver this model in an open and very flexible way. Both the owner, The Ministry of Education and the users report a high degree of satisfaction with the completed project. From the Ministry’s perspective, this school has become an example of the kind of innovative design and constructional outcomes which are possible even within the confines of public works budgets. From the user’s point of view, the schools have proven to be highly functional to the point that the school is considered by some to be a benchmark in the schools community.

The design and constructional team has focused a lot of energy on designing an outcome where all services are centralised and accessible for future upgrade, where the building fabric will require minimal maintenance and upgrade for their whole service life and also where the sustainable features incorporated mean that the school will use significantly less natural resources over its life than a more conventionally designed site.

Mission Heights Schools will achieve a GreenStar 5 rating. The sustainable initiatives in the building such as balanced daylight, effective passive ventilation and the specification of sustainable materials in the construction are all integral aspects of the design of the school. The buildings also include monitoring systems where students can monitor and study building performance indicators such as insulation levels, energy usage, rainfall collection and reuse, ventilation levels, natural light levels and many other sustainable building performance indicators.