10 Nov 11
The newly completed Performing Arts Centre building at St Cuthbert's College in Auckland was officially opened on Wednesday 5 October. The opening celebration at the College featured addresses by the Mayor of Auckland Mr Len Brown, the Minister of Education the Honourable Anne Tolley, and the Chair of the College Trust Board Ms Christine Gordon, as well as a performance by College students of a memorable original music and dance composition prepared for the occasion.
Architectus won an invited architectural competition in 2005 to design The Performing Arts Centre project. The new building provides teaching, rehearsal, and staff workspace facilities specifically designed for the delivery of the performing arts curriculum. The spaces for these activities are organised around a double-height sky-lit atrium that is the heart of the complex. The atrium provides a generous setting for informal performance and other social interactions that extend and enhance the formal learning experience.
The arrangement and massing of the Performing Arts Centre building is an expression of its social and pedagogical organization that is sensitive to the established residential context that it sits within. Designed to fit amongst a number of established trees on the site, the new building's discreetly scaled components and the materials that it is crafted from combine to make an enduring contribution to its corner site street frontage.
