The Jubilee Sports Centre – Saint Kentigern School in Auckland, New Zealand

June 19, 2010 Category: Education, Public Buildings

The Jubilee Sports Centre – Saint Kentigern School that located in Auckland, New Zealand, was designed by Architectus. Completed in 2009 for the school’s 50th year celebrations, the Jubilee Sports Centre (JSC) project involves the construction of a new sports and teaching facility, a multi purpose artificial turf, and a landscaped carpark. The key requirements of the brief were; the retention of the existing open spaces on a site with limited area for development, energy efficiency, and flexible spaces to accommodate a wide range of functions.

The location chosen for the JSC is on a steep bank that separates the school’s upper and lower playing fields. This site offered the opportunity to develop a significant building on land that was otherwise unusable, and at the same time stabilise the bank that had been subject to a number of slips, and to connect the school. The building parts are clearly articulated; the gymnasium ‘box’ is scaled to meet the functional requirements of the school’s curriculum and is partially buried in the bank. This arrangement allows the visual impact of the JSC to be reduced and allows the upper level to be read as a single storied building which relates more to the scale of the existing School buildings.

The section allows the visual connection of teaching spaces to the gymnasium facilitating a greater connection between learning in a classroom setting and participation on the sports floor below. A combination of high levels of natural light and ventilation and integrated AV systems provide engaging teaching environments to enhance the education process. Rainwater is harvested from the gymnasium membrane roof and is re-cycled as flushing water.

Also used for music and drama, the gymnasium space is lined with acoustic panels to reduce reverberation and help maintain speech intelligibility. The JSC provides the school with an all weather venue and large flexible spaces that cater for a wide range of school activities.

The Jubilee Sports Centre - Saint Kentigern School by Architectus