10 | ARCHITECTS RTA Studio T T Karen Phelps Retaining the story of the old building The 2069m² project, now known as Amokura, is the Hawke’s Bay Museum’s purpose-built collections facility at 307 Queen Street, Hastings. An ambitious adaptive re-use project by RTA Studio has been recognised at the 2026 New Zealand Institute of Architects (NZIA) Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay Architecture Awards taking home awards for both Public Architecture and the Resene Colour Award. The 2069m² project, now known as Amokura, is the Hawke’s Bay Museum’s purpose-built collections facility at 307 Queen Street East, Hastings. It provides a climate-controlled home for more than 90,000 taonga and research, education, administration and conservation spaces. Rather than demolishing the existing derelict retail building on the site RTA Studio retained its structural frame and gave the building a completely new architectural identity. “The big idea was adaptive re-use,” says Casey Anderson, RTA Studio Project Lead. “Making sure we didn’t demolish the structure helps Engineering New Zealand's very best Commercial Roofing Solutions RoofLogic is committed to providing specifiers, installers and building owners with roof and facade systems that set a new standard for commercial building envelopes in New Zealand retain the story of the old building and doesn’t contribute to the production of new material.” The design divides the facility into two distinct architectural forms based around the contrasting ideas of a Dark House and Light House. The concept was inspired by the traditional Māori waka huia, a treasure box used to protect precious possessions. The Dark House provides the long-term storage environment for the museum’s collection. Its existing structural steel frame is wrapped in a profiled metal façade and distinctive black metal feathers cantilever from the structure. The feathered exterior was developed through a collaborative cultural process and designed to represent a protective cloak around the taonga housed within. “The building is a living and breathing gateway for the region’s population to learn, reacquaint and embrace their history - good and bad,” says Casey. Inside the Dark House presents an intentional contrast to its dramatic exterior. White surfaces and carefully designed storage systems create a controlled environment suitable for protecting the collection. The Light House has a glazed curtain-wall façade incorporating ceramic frit. Its opacity increases where greater protection from light is required and the building accommodates public-facing and administrative functions including reception, education, offices and staff amenities. Casey says a seismic separation gap between the two structures is also an important part of the architectural narrative representing a line between worlds and between past and present. Te Ao, Te Pō and Te Kore informed layers of the interior architecture and the wider cultural story. He says the building’s location at the edge of Hastings’ character precinct also presented an opportunity to help strengthen the developing arts and hospitality precinct. Coloured LED lighting behind the Dark House feathers and across the Light House façade brings the building to life after dark activating what was previously a largely dark street frontage. Sustainability was another significant benefit of retaining the existing structure. RTA Studio estimates the adaptive re-use saved 700 tonnes of concrete from being produced and 25 tonnes of steel. The project also incorporates 78 solar panels, expected to generate 58,200kWh of electricity annually and timber CLT flooring was used in the newbuild portion. The facility survived Cyclone Gabrielle without flooding despite surrounding street flooding and overloaded stormwater infrastructure. Heat pumps replace gas for the building’s mechanical systems and detention tanks in the car park help reduce pressure on the public stormwater network. “This project is a civic success story of adaptive re-use within the heart of the Hastings CBD arts precinct. Dark and light combine in an elegant architectural narrative that treasures and conserves our region’s taonga for future generations, a celestial thread to their whakapapa, eyes fixed on the past moving into the future.”
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