Wintec House - Education

Client:          Wintec

Project Brief

Mainzeal has been working with Wintec to breathe new life into a disused heritage building within their Hamilton City Campus. The construction solutions included traditional and new technologies and the facility is paying its way already.
Wintec – the Waikato Institute of Technology – is one of New Zealand’s largest Institutes of Technology and a leading provider of high quality professional education in the Waikato.
Earlier in the year, Mainzeal completed the new 1200m2 Hub project for Wintec. As a central area for the campus it contains an enrolment information area, a relaxation and social area, a café, an audio visual and computer area, a library and the health centre.
Wintec House, or ‘Block F’, as the most recently completed project was titled, has been instrumental in facing Wintec toward the city and has become the ‘gateway’ between the city’s central business district and the heart of Wintec. Its physical attributes now align with the well-established relationship between the city’s commercial sector and Wintec.
As a heritage building that had seen better times, Block F had largely been abandoned as a teaching facility because it was an earthquake risk. It is believed that construction began on the original building in 1917, and then from 1924 the building was used by the Hamilton Technical College.
Mainzeal’s contract involved traditional strengthening techniques such as installing thousands of tie backs into the old red bricks, but also new technology just introduced to New Zealand.
Engineered Cementious Composite (ECC) was applied as a thin plaster to walls and was used instead of the traditional concrete bracing walls .
“It is hard to believe this thin plaster can have the same strengthening properties as a reinforced concrete wall”, says Project Manager, Darryl Jeffries “but it passed all its tests!”
Using ECC allowed architects Chow Hill more flexibility with the finished spaces and resulted in more usable areas – a real bonus for Wintec given that the building needed to be commercially viable.
The School of Hairdressing and Beauty is now housed in the refurbished building which includes state-of-the-art salons, and modern spa facilities. A few of Mainzeal’s project team took advantage of the beauty services which are available to the public on a commercial basis and were very happy with the results!
The Waikato Chamber of Commerce was quick to recognise the superior office space on offer and now has New York apartment style offices which are the envy of the CBD.
The Atrium is arguably the greatest feature of Wintec House and it is surrounded by an integration of heritage and contemporary building. Most of the modern features have been left exposed. The enclosed courtyard has a Ethylene Tetrafluoro Ethylene Co-polymer roof which is essentially inflated pockets of plastic foil. A massive viewing screen and full commercial kitchen combine to make the Atrium the perfect hospitality venue.
It is fabulous to see an historic building regaining its dignity and once again being put to good use.