Business South August 2021

96 | School rebuild ticks all the boxes ‘Designing for purpose’ has shaped the layout of the new Waimairi School with internal divisions able to be reconfigured to meet changing educational needs. Waimairi School COMMUNITY T his year marks an exciting new begin- ning for Waimairi School, with staff and students having moved into new school buildings purpose-built for learning. Waimairi School’s rebuild and redevelop- ment was part of Christchurch’s $1 billion edu- cation renewal programme, launched in 2013 to replace or repair 115 earthquake-damaged schools in greater Christchurch. “We kept one classroom block from 2008 [Nga Puna – for new entrants] and a hall from 2010 [Makomako – a community classroom space] but everything else is new,” says Wai- mairi School Principal Mike Anderson. “We’re still pinching ourselves and saying, ‘is this flash school really ours and do we really work here?!’ It’s a huge change for the better.” It has been a long haul for the school, with initial ground remediation alone taking a year. Finalising the design was another complex process. Having been outside the fences for more than two years watching the main school building ‘Nga Awa’ going up in the middle of the school site, staff and students are now inside the fences watching demolition of old buildings and landscaping. “By the end of term, we’ll finally have the whole school back again after 10 years.” Mike has been the school’s principal throughout the rebuild and says decisions around designing the new school were taken very seriously right from the start. In 2013, school staff raised funds for a study tour of contemporary schooling in Melbourne to kick start the design process. “Melbourne is renowned for its considered and thoughtful architecture and school de- sign. We were inspired by what we saw there – our style of building is not a prototype New Zealand school rebuild.” There was extensive consultation to ensure the voices of parents, children and teachers would be heard and responded to in the final design. Mike says parents who were first con- sulted on the rebuild have since returned to take a look and are pleased at how their ideas have been expressed in the final plan. Many had indicated they didn’t like the idea of “a big open barn and free range children”; hence, spaces were carefully designed to ensure that wouldn’t be the outcome. Kim Newth ‘Designing for purpose’ has shaped the layout, with the school organised into neigh- bourhood groups where spaces have been configured to support a wide range of specific learning settings, such as instructional reading for 6-8 children, lessons involving 30 children, small groups doing writing tasks or arts and crafts sessions. Mike says the design actually reflects around 20 different learning settings. “Our neighbourhoods all come off a big central concourse area called Aratika. “When you step out of that concourse and into one of the neighbourhoods, it’s like going into another little building. “The acoustics are awesome – everyone who comes here talks about how tranquil it is considering there are 400 kids in the building! “It has been very moving to see how it has turned out – it’s amazing, beyond all our expectations.” Future proofing has not been overlooked in the design. Internal divisions are not load bearing, so could be potentially reconfigured to meet changing educational needs. The architect for the Waimairi School rebuild was Designgroup Stapleton Elliott with construction onsite led by HRS Construction. T: 03 366 1777 • E: engineering@pfc.co.nz • W: www.pfc.co.nz Structural • Mechanical • Electrical Fire • Civil • Hydraulic • Acoustic Powell Fenwick is proud to be the engineering consultants for Waimairi School