Timeless Aug 5, 2009
The late Paris Magdalinos' buildings are known to reverberate with explosive flourishes and startling colour, and the new Hastings district courthouse will be no exception.
His favourite trinity of colours was deep blue, red and rich yellow, reflected in the courthouse's distinctive yellow blade wall at the entrance, blue stone cladding and bright red columns.
The Building Intelligence Group project manager Stuart Lyons believes the courthouse is a great testament to Paris' work and will become a landmark in the city and reminder of the architect's passion to create great buildings.
Not only that, the building is an important and much-improved new public facility for Hastings. Inside, at 3300m2 over two floors, the courthouse is double the size of its predecessor, including four courtrooms, mediation and hearing rooms, seven judge's chambers and custodial areas. All courtrooms will have the provision for video conferencing.
The building is also notable for being one of the first in New Zealand to utilise an innovative Kingspan cladding and roofing system, which Stuart says created major advantages during the build process.
"It was a great investment," Stuart says. "The main advantage it created was reduced build times - it's a complete finished-roof system that was erected in a matter of days as opposed to the weeks you would expect with a conventional, segmented system."
While the resulting clean lines of the roofing can't be appreciated from street level, Stuart admires the holistic design approach that has seen all the building services contained within the building.
That holistic approach extends to social, cultural and environmental implications and, in keeping with this, the Ministry of Justice has commissioned a piece of public art for the site, to be unveiled at the official opening.
Practical completion of the courthouse is set for early September, with the Ministry of Justice to be fully operational in their new premises by the end of the year.