Hobsonville Point Secondary School
Project Details
Architects
ASC Architects
Address
70 Hobsonville Point Road, Hobsonville Point Auckland 0618 New Zealand
Submitter
John Sofo
Cost
$52,466,000
Photographer
Michael NG
Project Overview
Hobsonville Point Secondary School, by ASC Architects, comprises a long, simple form with several large, multi-use studio teaching environments. The entry is at one end, to the right of the modern gymnasium. To bring visual interest to the building, ASC Architects manipulated shape, scale and colour.
As part of its strategy to provide a connected learning pathway for kids from the beginning of primary to the end of secondary school, the Ministry of Education engaged ASC Architects to design the secondary school in a way that all the design elements of the existing primary school could be reinterpreted for more mature students.
All the same briefing principles of focus on community, collaboration, learning experientially and individual learning freedom have been retained and refined. The building design has focused on taking the idea of school as a community and testing whether all the fine grain elements of a small community of buildings could still be achieved in one structure.
The transitions from street to community space to private withdrawal areas were the drivers of the overall design strategy.
Hobsonville Point Secondary School is New Zealand ‘s first PPP (public private partnership) project and perhaps the most significant Ministry of Education
project yet.
ASC Architects and Hawkins Construction were commissioned to design, construct and manage, for 25 years, two schools with a combined population of 1,600 students. This project was won in competition against local and international
consortia.
The school is significantly different to other New Zealand schools in terms of its construction quality, building performance, and effectiveness as a twenty first century learning environment. The key architectural innovations achieved in this project centre around a response to the MOE ‘s vision of Modern Learning Environments. Innovations are focused on making learning interior and exterior environments enquiry based learning, which is regarded internationally as educational best practice. These learning environments are open and non-restrictive allowing spaces to be customized for different teaching purposes.