03 Magazine: April 05, 2024

44 Magazine | Feature
Thinking inside the box
Having been forced from its original Shirley site to a temporary home after the 2011
earthquake, this year saw Marian College move into its innovative (and world-first)
new space – a retrofitted former Foodstuffs warehouse in Northcote. 03 chatted to
Sheppard & Rout’s design architect/director Jasper van der Lingen and design/project
architect Joff Kennedy about the mind-bending building.
INTERVIEW JOSIE STEENHART | PHOTO SARAH ROWLANDS
First, congratulations – what an amazing space!
How does it feel to have it completed?
It feels great to have it completed. It has been a long,
complex project that we started back in early 2020, so
it’s a real joy to finally see the school fully move in this
year and start to settle in and enjoy the place.
From the largely abandoned, tired-looking, old,
large industrial warehouse that we visited on day one
to the fresh, vibrant place it is now, full of life and
students, it has been quite a transformative journey
and immensely satisfying.
Have you worked on anything (even remotely)
similar before?
We’ve never worked on placing a school within a
warehouse before, however, we were the architects
for the Majestic Church project on Durham Street that
transformed a series of old industrial buildings into a
modern church and events centre.
There were some similarities to the projects, but we
haven’t been able to find an actual example of a new
school being placed within an old warehouse structure
like this anywhere in the world.
Could you talk us through a brief timeline of how the
project unfolded?
We commenced the project in early 2020 and the college
was fully open and operating for the 2024 school year.
Whose initial vision was it to retrofit a warehouse into
a high school?
The original idea to retain the existing warehouse and
place the school within came from the Catholic Diocese
and Marian College themselves, we understand.
Was there a brief, or how/where does something like
this even begin?
The brief from Marian College was for a fully
functioning state integrated Catholic girls’ school for
years 9–13. The roll was set at 430, but we developed
a masterplan for how this could easily increase to 600
pupils in the future.
Being state integrated, the brief included the standard
Ministry of Education requirements for facilities for a
school of this size. However, due to having the school
beneath the all-encompassing roof of the warehouse,
we were able to achieve benefits beyond a standard
school simply because of this situation. These included
large breakout spaces outside the teaching spaces out of
the weather, four covered sports courts, and generous
upstairs spill-out areas for all to use.
A further addition was the school chapel, a generous
gift from the Bishop and Diocese that has become the
central focus and heart of the school community.
What exactly was already in place when the
project began?
The warehouse was old, with the original portion built
in the 1950s, with further bays added over the decades.
In its day it was the largest warehouse in the country.
When we started the job, it had largely been abandoned
and was feeling derelict in places.
What has remained, what was removed/altered and
what is new?
We kept the majority of the warehouse but
demolished some of the early 1950s bays, which were
in very poor condition. This also allowed space for
outdoor grassed playing fields, to balance the interior
nature of the main school.
What were some of the biggest challenges?
The biggest challenges were budgetary. Money was
tight and the build occurred largely through the Covid
lockdowns and beyond, which saw issues with supply of
materials and sharp cost escalations.
The buildings are largely constructed of engineered
timber, grown and manufactured into prefabricated
building components in New Zealand, which helped
mitigate these challenges somewhat while supporting the
local economy and sequestering carbon.
The chapel is obviously the major jewel in the crown…
The chapel was a separate commission to the school,
which we won in a design competition. It is the ‘jewel in
the crown’ of the school, front and centre as you walk
in. The chapel ceiling reflects the cultural narrative gifted
to Marian College from the local iwi, which was centred
around Te Pae Mahutonga, the Southern Cross. The
ceiling is a representation of the celestial heavens as they
were seen on the night Marian College was founded in
1982 and prominently features Te Pae Mahutonga.