King’s College has transformed the heart of its Otahuhu campus with the opening of Toi Manawa, a state-of-the-art music and performance arts centre, which sits alongside a revitalised Great Hall, creating a new epicentre of student life.
Hosting a theatre as well as spaces for learning, orchestra, rock bands, dance and music recording, Toi Manawa is the centrepiece of the first stage of the college’s property masterplan, with a goal to improve suitability of purpose, circulation, visitor experience and enhance the student environment.
This launched with the ability to provide space for whole-school activity, gathering areas for functions and school celebrations, and new facilities to elevate the performing arts.
A key focus of the project is the seamless blending of old and new, with the location and appearance of the Toi Manawa building responding to the historical 1920s masterplan. The school campus is laid out orthogonally around a curved main avenue and Toi Manawa replaced a low-level building, thus elongating the site and bookending the Memorial Chapel to re-establish the spirit of the original masterplan. As Toi Manawa and the school’s Great Hall created a connected block, acknowledgement of the campus’s Gothic and post-modern history informed the design and creation of a contemporary space that feels right at home.
Toi Manawa nestles near a historic tree line that is separated from the learning quadrant by sports fields. This created a narrow construction site that required bespoke and agile design, project management and construction methodology within a working school environment. Meeting these challenges, the resulting design boasts a modern red-brick façade, maximises usable space and showcases the outlook to campus.
The innovative use of pre-cast panels and brick slips for external walls developed budget and programme efficiencies. Large clear-span steel trusses for the roof allow for reconfiguration of the upper-level space to meet evolving learning and technological trends, and the 250-seat Flanagan Theatre was designed to adapt to suit performances, ranging from intimate speeches to full stage shows.
With music at its core, the build has maximised acoustic, soundproofing and audio-visual superiority. A warm roof system, concrete-panel walls, a relatively low window-to-wall ratio and a high glass-to-joinery ratio work together to minimise air infiltration. In classrooms, demand-control mechanical ventilation is used so that systems run only when students are present and heating, ventilation and air conditioning in the orchestra room, auditorium and dance studio are deactivated when not in use. Free cooling, implemented to reduce CO2 levels and energy use, allows these spaces to be cooled via 100 per cent outdoor air when conditions are favourable. And air-conditioning systems have spare plug-and-play capacity should layouts change.
The approach to build clever and build efficiently has also seen the toilet blocks in the adjacent Great Hall refurbished to accommodate both buildings. Ongoing maintenance has been considered and addressed with the choice of permanent, durable materials.
The building of Toi Manawa has immediately lifted academic opportunity and participation, with an expanded curriculum that now offers dance and drama courses alongside Cambridge certification. An orchestra that began with 18 students now boasts more than 70 members, with similar growth across the school’s concert bands, jazz combos, and chamber orchestras. The facility now bustles with activity and is open to the public for hire — offering one of Auckland’s most sought-after venues for local musicians and performers.
TOI MANAWA
King’s College, Golf Avenue, Ōtāhuhu, Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland
OWNER KING’S COLLEGE
CONSTRUCTION ASPEC CONSTRUCTION
ARCHITECT PATTERSONS ASSOCIATES
SERVICE ENGINEER ECUBED BUILDING WORKSHOP
STRUCTURAL ENGINEER HOLMES STRUCTURAL
MECHANICAL ENGINEER ECUBED BUILDING WORKSHOP
BUILDING ENCLOSURE ENGINEER OCULUS ARCHITECTURAL ENGINEERING
QUANTITY SURVEYOR BARNES BEAGLEY DOHERR
PROJECT MANAGER RUBIX
ACOUSTIC CONSULTANT MARSHALL DAY ACOUSTICS
AV CONSULTANT STUDIO ENTERTECH