St Martins library launchpad for Australian architects
An Australian architecture firm specialising in multi-use premises has won a contract to rebuild the St Martins Community library in Christchurch.
No-one was more excited at the news than local resident Janette Busch, who this week bounded up to a group that looked like they meant business on the empty lot.
The former Lincoln University technical writer was bursting with hope that a well-used community centre would soon be back in action. The old one had been a real meeting place for the community, she said.
Plus Architecture has won a Christchurch City Council tender for the rebuild, which now moves into a design stage before any application for resource consent.
The Melbourne company had become one of the ‘‘top three or four’’ firms in the multi-use residential sector, having put a stamp on 4000 apartments in Melbourne and expanded to new company bases in Sydney and Brisbane.
New Zealand managing partner Jaimin Atkins is a Tasmanian who began his career with Plus Architecture in 2002. He and his partner had been enjoying the hussle of inner-city Melbourne but things changed with the birth of a child. The Atkins have had four months in Christchurch with their 18-month-old daughter. The environment felt similar to "Tassie’’ including the cold, he said.
Plus Architecture was used to being flexible, designing 20 storey buildings that could be split into hotel, office and shop space.
The St Martins job would be different but Atkins said the firm would still draw on some of its expertise in areas like mixed retail-commercial and aged-care facilities.
It would not be about imposing Melbourne architecture and style but the firm had a certain amount of ‘‘commercial savvy’’ to offer.
Atkins’ ideal was spaces that were ‘‘inviting, open and architec- turally transparent and approachable’’.
He hoped the St Martins library would be a versatile facility, serving as a sort of microcosm of the city.
‘‘It’s not going to be a big building that sits out and screams, ‘look at me’.’’ It would be functional and serve as a base for the community.
Along the way he wanted to respect the history of the old St Martins library, which he understood had been on its Wilsons Rd site since the early 1950s. One aim was to keep the tree still standing near the old bus stop entrance.
He had been told that users of the old library used to complain about bus fumes invading indoors but it was also likely that bus passengers would continue to be major library browsers. In his experience any good building design would ‘‘embrace the good and mitigate the bad.’’
When he first looked at public submissions on the proposed new library, he struggled to find a coherent set of demands. But then it became clear that people wanted a contemporary building with ‘‘clean lines’’.
He was working with a recent Kiwi graduate, Piers Bowman, on the city council’s design brief for a multi-purpose St Martins library and meeting area.
Bowman is a New Zealander from an architectural family, including his father who is a renowned heritage/conservation architect in Nelson.
Atkins said his firm was happy to have won work with a local institution like the city council but it had never intended to expand to New Zealand, much less hunt for rebuild contracts in Christchurch.
A couple of business partners had urged the partners to come and look around the city. So here they are, in the early stages of creating a detailed library design.