Winning the first New Zealand PPP project was a key highlight of this project. The ASC Architects/Hawkins Construction team were commissioned to design, construct and manage for 25 years, two schools with a combined student population of 1600 students. This project was won in competition against local and international consortia, which puts into perspective the magnitude of this achievement.

Both schools are significantly different to any other New Zealand school in terms of construction quality, building performance and also in terms of their effectiveness as twenty first century learning environments. The schools have achieved a five Green Star Built rating; however the quality of the building skin and internal environment of these schools is far above the standard of any school previously built in New Zealand. The total value of these two projects is in the vicinity of $100 million. This is perhaps the most significant single Ministry of Education project ever.

The secondary school was opened at the commencement of the 2014 school year.

Hobsonville Point Secondary School is a long, linear building with several large studios and ancillary spaces. Extensive additional facilities include a state of the art gymnasium and sports centre, sophisticated ablution amenities and a cafeteria. The expansive studios encourage students of different areas to work together and are designed to hold around 90 students at a time – the optimum number for effective interaction with others without losing focus.

A sophisticated palette of materials was used, which is visually stimulating and refined to suit young adults. This is achieved through the use of recessive colours from Resene’s neutral selections including Resene Black White (grey white) and Resene Black, along with bold feature colour accents - Resene Red Hot (primary red), Resene Outrageous (bright orange), Resene Chameleon (retro lime green), Resene Aquarius (airy blue), Resene Limerick (Irish green), Resene Spray (aqua blue) and Resene Wild Thing (bright yellow gold) - to give character to the space.

These feature colours both act as a relief and also function to help define different learning areas, studios and social spaces within the school.

Feature colours are used in the same manner for the exterior to animate the long form and provide important visual anchors to address and highlight entrances and core facilities such as the staff room and gymnasium.

Hobsonville Point Secondary School by ASC Architects won the Resene Total Colour Maestro Education Senior Award. The judges thought this project was “bold, confident and sophisticated. This colour palette has such a beautiful integration with architecture that elevates schooling to a whole new level.

Colour adds to a welcoming place for student and teachers providing the perfect backdrop to an enjoyable learning environment.

Recessive natural colours along with bold feature colour accents give character to spaces. Colour acts as a relief, is functional and defines spaces, animates and provides visual anchors.

A confident use of colour and design."

Architectural specifier: ASC Architects
Building contractor: Hawkins Construction
Client: Ministry of Education
Photographer: Michael Ng
Winnner: Resene Total Colour Maestro Education Senior Award
Project: Resene Total Colour Awards 2015
From the Resene News – issue 1/2015