Interior: Wel­ling­ton School of Medi­cine by Ath­field Architects

Good Chem­istry

With sur­gical pre­ci­sion Ath­field Archi­tects has cre­ated a 
new 'heart' for this med­ical school 
attached to Wel­ling­ton Hos­pital. Words:Tommy Honey. 
Pho­to­graphy: Simon Devitt.

Ath­field Architect's addi­tion to the Wel­ling­ton School of Medi­cine and Health. Photo © Simon Devitt

The Wel­ling­ton School of Medi­cine and Health Sci­ences is part of the Uni­ver­sity of Otago but is attached to Wel­ling­ton Hos­pital. It caters to mostly 4th– and 5th-year stu­dents get­ting their clin­ical prac­tice exper­i­ence and has a busy post-graduate sec­tion. For years it has been housed in the end of a block in the hos­pital and has lacked an iden­tity of its own. Entry was via a zig-zagging external stair­case to the second level and the interi­ors were 1970s hos­pital dis­mal.Ath­field Archi­tects were engaged to provide new premises for the school in the same loc­a­tion. There were two exist­ing lec­ture theatres which had to relate to the new premises. The brief called for new under­gradu­ate teach­ing spaces, stu­dent com­puter and study spaces and a new and exten­ded lib­rary. There was also to be a new stu­dent com­mon room space and café and improved IT and staff spaces. The school was look­ing for a pos­it­ive and access­ible envir­on­ment for stu­dents, staff and vis­it­ors. Most import­antly they were after a legible address with a gen­er­ous cent­ral space that would act as a multi-purpose social nexus or ‘heart’ for the school.

A soph­ist­ic­ated indus­trial aes­thetic per­meates the med­ical school. Con­crete floors are pol­ished, there are no sus­pen­ded ceil­ings, and in com­munal areas there is plenty of access to nat­ural light. Image © Simon Devitt

The team at Ath­field was lead by John Hardwicke-Smith and included Sophie Vial, Nick Mouat, Monique van Alphen-Fyfe and Paul Cum­mick. Together they came up with a new two-storey build­ing that would extend out from the exist­ing high-rise hos­pital block. This in effect cre­ated three struc­tures which were divided by two expressed axes. These axes became the organ­ising device for the planning.

Entry is along the East-West axis with the new build­ing emer­ging on the right. This is a simple curving struc­ture clad in cur­tain wall glaz­ing. It is one of two ‘clip-ons’ with the other being at the end of this axis. The entry is gen­er­ous with an open recep­tion to the right, which is clad in part with embossed eco­panel, bring­ing tex­tural relief to a busy area. At ground level this new build­ing houses the staff areas, offices and IT area. Straight ahead is an open stair­case lead­ing up. The sides of the stair­case are made of per­for­ated metal which is actu­ally an art­work by Simon Mor­ris. At this ground level, the exist­ing interior was gut­ted to cre­ate a much more open space without sus­pen­ded ceil­ings, effect­ively expos­ing the building’s skel­eton free of its tired and sag­ging flesh. The design aes­thetic is soph­ist­ic­ated indus­trial with per­for­ated skins that play with light. The lifts are sheathed in gal­van­ised metal and the con­crete floor is pol­ished.
At the east­ern end of this axis is a stu­dent area with an out­side deck.
The north-south axis forms the spine of the interior. Columns like ver­teb­rae march through here and on closer inspec­tion it is revealed that this was once the sep­ar­a­tion of two build­ings. The archi­tects have sur­gic­ally repaired this junc­ture, uncov­er­ing and redir­ect­ing ser­vices like lig­a­ments and doing so with a specialist’s steady hand. There is another stair here, also lead­ing up. There is also another Simon Mor­ris com­mis­sion with an art­work derived from the first, applied to the double-height wall. Above the stair a new sky­light floods the area with nat­ural light.
On the left are new glass-walled study areas for stu­dent and staff use. On the other side of the cor­ridor are more teach­ing rooms designed for small classes, fit­ted out with the latest tech­no­logy for teach­ing. Some of the con­crete exposed by the demoli­tion has been pol­ished with the remain­ing interior design being fin­ished with a mix of ply­wood and eco­panel.
Upstairs are the new entries to the lec­ture theatres which have been upgraded inside and are now much more access­ible than pre­vi­ously. There are more small teach­ing areas, break-out areas for stu­dents and a café. The North-South axis here is gen­er­ous and a far cry from the claus­tro­phobic cor­ridors they replaced. The bal­us­trade by the stairs is of ver­tical tim­ber bat­tens intro­du­cing a subtle rhythm to the prom­en­ade. Around the corner on the east-west axis, the bat­tens are hori­zontal and hang in the ceil­ing space, float­ing above the stair.
The new lib­rary occu­pies much of this second floor and forms the upper part of the new build­ing. The lib­rary interior is care­fully and quietly com­posed with a mix of stacks, com­puters and quiet sit­ting areas which soften the space. The ceil­ings at the peri­meter and some of the walls are made of eco-panel to soften the sound. At the west­ern end of the build­ing are three cut­back areas with full glaz­ing with views over New­town and small seat­ing areas. The roof over the cent­ral part of the lib­rary is a ribbed laminated-beam struc­ture with anthro­po­morphic imagery that is hard to avoid and yet is strangely comforting.

Body imagery abounds through­out this interior from the per­for­ated skins of metal to the struc­ture that has been stripped to the bone. In less com­pet­ent hands this could have been over­done and appeared trite, even offens­ive. But here Ath­fields have known when to express the struc­ture and when to leave it alone. The anthro­po­morph­ism dis­played is subtle, almost play­ful at times, and it has not served as a rigid design recipe. The strength of the interior lies not in the strip­ping back but in the care­ful intro­duc­tion of new lay­ers: the per­for­ated screens, the eco­panel (some­times flat and grey; some­times black and embossed like giant Braille). The col­our panel is muted and grey, yet it is not cold or clin­ical. Simon Morris’s art­works ref­er­ence the rest of the interior and are an excel­lent example of art that works with, not against, archi­tec­ture and, by doing so, extends it. There is also a play­ful work called Land Buoy by a local artist Duncan Sar­gent that reminds us not to take art – or archi­tec­ture – too ser­i­ously.
The Wel­ling­ton School of Medi­cine and Health Sci­ences finally has a new home and one they should be proud of. Ath­field Archi­tects have sens­it­ively integ­rated a rich interior into an awk­ward and hid­den part of the hospital.

One of two exist­ing lec­ture theatres that had to relate aes­thet­ic­ally to the new struc­ture. Photo © Simon Devitt.

A ver­tical tim­ber bal­us­trade intro­duces a subtle rhy­thym mirrored by the hori­zontal bat­tens in a seg­ment of glass floor. Photo © Simon Devitt.

Three cut­backs in the west­ern façade allow views over New­town. Photo © Simon Devitt.

View over a smalll exter­ior deck. Photo © Simon Devitt.

Plan cour­tesy Ath­field Architects.

Cred­its:

Cli­ent Uni­ver­sity of Otago
Archi­tect Ath­field Archi­tects
Pro­ject man­ager Octa Asso­ci­ates
Build­ing owner Uni­ver­sity of Otago, School of Medi­cine and Health Sci­ence
Fit-out con­tractor Naylor Love Con­struc­tion
Ser­vices con­sult­ant Sin­clair Knight Mertz
Graphic design visu­als Moxie Design Group
Win­dow join­ery Altherm
Door join­ery BDS Doors
Archi­tec­tural hard­ware Sop­ers
Glass work Metro Glass; Ultra Glass
Win­dow treat­ments Win­doware
Paint Resene, Altex Coat­ings and Sikkens
Floor­ing Ontera; James Hal­stead Floor­ing NZ Ltd.
Work­sta­tion desks, chairs, cab­in­etry Kada; Hydestor; Redleaf Fur­niture and Kit­chens
Wait­ing fur­niture UFL
Other fur­niture Thonet; Nu Image; Max­wood Man­u­fac­tur­ing
Stor­age Hydestor
Tex­tiles Woven Image; Vivid Tex­tiles; Tex­tile Mania
Sig­nage Den­eefe Sig­nage
Spe­cial­ist wall lin­ings Woven Image Echo Panel
Fea­ture art Simon Morris

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