Wellington
High School

Wellington High School Gymnasium

Wellington
High School

Sitting at the southern end of Taranaki Street, and bordered by the National War Memorial to the east, Wellington High School sits on a prominent site at the central city’s edge.

The brief for this project consisted of a masterplanning exercise to establish a clear entrance and pathways through the school, design of a new gymnasium, and upgrades to several existing facilities.

Working within constraints of the tight urban site, a master plan was developed to provide a defined entrance, more efficient circulation and a better relationship between the various facilities. A new restaurant and food technology room was provided, textiles and pottery rooms relocated, and the new gymnasium developed.

Wellington High School Gymnasium

Positioned on a slope overlooking the school’s main sports field, the main floor of the gym is accessed from a main entrance at first floor level.

The design utilises the site’s slope to ensure that none of the school’s flat land – at a premium in Wellington – was lost to the development of the gym.

Wellington High School Gymnasium
Wellington High School Gymnasium
Wellington High School Gymnasium
Wellington High School Gymnasium
Wellington High School Gymnasium

The location of the gym’s main entrance at first floor level allowed for existing changing rooms to be upgraded and reused as part of the project, rather than rebuilt.

Wellington High School Gymnasium

Honest materials, sympathetic to the existing brutalist-style architecture of the school, are used.

Exposed concrete structure, steel and Zincalume cladding feature inside and out.

Wellington High School Gymnasium
Wellington High School Gymnasium
Wellington High School Gymnasium

Client: Ministry of Education

Location: Wellington

Status: Completed 2012