Massey Innovation Complex

The complex is arranged around a ‘lab box’ containing efficiently stacked floor plates with carefully composed visual connections through to atrium, social and landscape spaces. This box is composed of a disciplined and efficient two-way moment steel frame with mass concrete floors to maximise space planning efficiency while mitigating footfall induced vibration, the Achilles heel of sensitive laboratory equipment andtasks.

Partitions, doors, windows, joinery, suspended reagent shelving, lighting and ventilation systems within the ‘lab box’ volume embraced a ‘kit of parts’ approach, that gradates only as strict functional requirements dictate. This permits a high degree of interchangeability between research and learning as well as betweendisciplines.

Priority is given to achieving high degrees of transparency and connecting views into lab areas that put ‘science on display’ and connect to the wider campus and industry community. Wrapping the lab areas to the north and west are a series of choreographed ‘cloistered ‘ circulation, informal breakout, learning, conferencing and focused workspace. These spaces interface with the existing campus at multiple levels, and are connected via a multiple levelatrium.

Sited within the distinctive Spanish Mission styled campus, the Innovation Complex is unapologetically of its time. Externally, a prefabricated unitised façade system is utilised for its efficiency and long-term durability. To the west, completing an existing cloistered courtyard, large vertical solar fins evoke the shimmering reeds/raupō of  adjacent native wetlands, filtering the afternoon light. The façade is wrapped in modular plank panels, subtly feathered to catch the changing light, with deep-set punched windows opening to the variety of teaching and research lab spaces and adjacent workplaces beyond. 

The deep rich ochre of the sculpted cores, light filled central atrium space and contrasting structurally engineered timber columns deliver a sense of integrity, clarity and warmth that denotes a new gateway to the campus, while acknowledging the strong presence of the existingcontext.