A nation-defining initiative
This project marks a pivotal moment in Aotearoa’s civic infrastructure journey, setting a bold new standard for cultural stewardship, seismic resilience, and digital collaboration. As a defining national initiative, this project transcends exceptional design to reshape the intersection of architecture, innovation, and partnership, ensuring that our documented heritage is safeguarded for generations to come.
Led by Warren and Mahoney, the new Archives facility is home to some of New Zealand’s most precious governmental records, language resources, and whakapapa. By physically connecting the Archives building to the National Library of New Zealand via a two-level bridge, a cohesive ‘heritage campus’ has been created - one that fosters enhanced collaboration, eliminates redundancies, and boosts the overall effectiveness of both institutions in serving Aotearoa.
This process brings life to something that is uniquely Aotearoa. You can’t replicate this building or this experience anywhere else in the world.
Pātaka Whakairo, the traditional Māori storehouse
A co-design process with mana whenua has resulted in a mana-enhancing experience for all involved.
This provides an authentic design outcome, representative of the aspirations for the physical and operational outcomes for Archives New Zealand and the preservation of the ‘evidence of New Zealand’.
The concept of the Pātaka Whakairo, the traditional Māori storehouse, is used as the analogical starting point. This is then deconstructed into three key components as constructs of Heke Rua.
Tuanui - A highly ornate, sculpted vessel, levitating above the whenua (land). This vessel houses and protects the memories and conscience of our nation.
Ātea - An intermediary space where one navigates and is immersed within the collection. A space for freedom of thought, ability to learn, interpret, and share.
Tūāpapa - A platform, carved into the landscape. Connected to the ground with layered textures that echo the whenua’s (land’s) past - ‘The evidence of New Zealand’. Importantly, when we consider this through a co-design process with mana whenua and the decolonisation of our national archive, we can rethink this as a place to engage with our ‘nation’s conscience’.
Tuakiri - the building’s Indigenous identity
The project explores the contemporary expression of Indigenous Māori art forms. The building’s façade features a variety of Māori visual design languages, exploring Kōtukutuku, Tākiri, Wai Ngārahu, Kōwhaiwhai, Puhoro, Ara Poutama, Whakarei, Whakanikoniko, and Peha Hītaratara. Such expressions are utilised as a device to reassert the presence of the Indigenous communities who once resided over Pipitea.
This award recognises a project where digital thinking was central from the very start. Building information modelling (BIM) was not treated as a technical extra, but as a key driver of design, coordination, and construction outcomes. With strong buy-in across the team and a dedicated BIM Manager, a shared model became the single source of truth for everyone involved. More than 40,000 issues were identified and resolved in the model before installation, helping avoid rework on site.
Resilience in detail
Recognising the national treasures this project is entrusted with protecting, resilience is a core design driver. To achieve this, BIM is being used to foster communication, collaboration, and coordination across the project team utilising a full suite of advanced tools including pre-emptive clash detection, digital prototyping of the complex seismic resilience, and forecasting OPEX costs in design.
Our scope, encompassing independent BIM management and advisory, also includes a direct client facing role, advising, and strategising as well as a consultant oversight role, auditing, clash detecting, drafting, and implementing the BEP, AM/FM researching, and developing ways to manage this building through a digital twin.
Site massing
The site offers an opportunity to create a positive sense of place within the city, achieving a space that reacts to both people and adjacent buildings; a structure that maximises both height and volume to the south of the site, complemented by a north facing public plaza which allows for an engaging, permeable pedestrian journey along and through the site.
A state-of-the-art archival facility, designed to protect Aotearoa’s documented heritage with the highest levels of technical performance and resilience, located in the heart of New Zealand’s parliamentary precinct.
