Crafted catalyst.
Porirua Kiosk.
This new kiosk brings fresh energy and identity to the Porirua city centre; it’s a symbol of the transformative change that the city is investing in, the first phase of an ambitious project to revitalise the urban realm.
Successful city centres are places where people work, shop, socialise and live. Porirua City is in the process of overcoming its challenges and moving forward to become an attractive, inviting and successful urban centre.
This small architectural project, located at the junction of key axes in the wider regeneration project, is a catalyst and benchmark for better quality development in the area and a sign of things to come. The kiosk accommodates two small food and beverage outlets as well as public bathrooms – amenities that are not typically closely coupled. However, through clever planning and screening this finely crafted urban ‘object’ easily handles its dual role.
The kiosk, a timber-clad volume with a floating steel and glass canopy overhead, is designed to be robust yet welcoming. On the south side, a stainless steel projection contains four individual public toilets, each given privacy by the timber screen incorporated into the canopy’s folded steel ribs.
The timber rain-screen has vertical battens over panels painted to match the colours selected for the new surrounding landscape. The deployment of simple patterns – highlighted and abstracted when shadows from the glass canopy fall across the structure’s timber skin – and bright colours evokes a subtle Pasifika theme appropriate to the cultural identity of Porirua.
Collaborators
Calibre
Dunning Thornton
S&T
Contractor
Hawkins
Client
Porirua City Council
Awards
2017 NZILA Award of Excellence – Urban Spaces
2017 Commercial Projects Award
2017 NZIA Wellington Architecture Award
2016 Best Award Public and Institutional Spaces (gold pin)
2016 Resene Total Colour – Colour Maestro Award