The Hub, Victoria University - Education

Client:          Victoria University of Wellington

Project Brief

Victoria University is upgrading the centre of its Kelburn Campus. Mainzeal was awarded the contract to deliver the Hub project following a P&G and Margin tender that included close scrutiny of non-price attributes such as track record, team, methodology, programme and management systems.
The Campus Hub project involves construction of a new central building, the refurbishment of the three surrounding buildings and the creation of a new outdoor area. The new central building will add 4,260m2 of floor plate to the campus and there is a further 10,490m2 of floor area being refurbished. Essentially the old Quad space is being redeveloped as a new building and lowered one level to match the height of the Easterfield entry on Kelburn Parade.
The new three storey central building will offer spaces for student gatherings, events, socialising and study. There will be shops in Easterfield with street frontage to Kelburn Parade and back onto the new central building. A new quad in front of the central building will provide outdoor space for events and gatherings.
The Rankine Brown Library is being refurbished with connections to the new central building on levels one to three. The refurbishment will include informal and collaborative learning spaces. The third level of the central building will become part of the library. As the building works progress, the library is taking the opportunity of reorganising how it delivers its services. For example some rarely accessed material is being relocated to remote storage, freeing up space for individual and group study.
The construction of the central building is a relatively straightforward process, however the staging of works in Rankine Brown makes for a slower and more challenging operation. Mainzeal communicates regularly with the Victoria University project team and the appropriate library staff to ensure everyone is aware of the upcoming works and disruption is kept to a minimum. The University has a large number of books to move around the library and it is imperative to maintain adequate study spaces for students.
The JC Beaglehole Room is the home of the library’s Special Materials collection, comprising rare and archival books and materials. It was amongst the first collections in the library to move into a new location. The JC Beaglehole Room has been relocated to a larger and more visible purpose-built area which includes an environmentally controlled storage space, a reading room and staff offices.
The Hub site sits right at the core of the campus so before construction commenced on the main build, new primary and secondary access routes were established and new social spaces were built. The redevelopment project and building site is a prominent feature of the Kelburn Campus and for some students the building site will figure in their whole university experience.
Particular effort has been taken to ensure students and staff are enthused about the project and are informed of any potential effect on their own activities. Regular project updates are posted on the University’s website, project displays with electronic screens are in key positions and new spaces are being progressively completed and opened for use.
One of the new facilities to be completed quickly by Mainzeal was the staff and postgraduate café and bar. It is located on Level 1 of Rankine Brown with associated outdoor seating space. Sited nearby is a student takeaway kiosk called Louis’ which operates from premises that will eventually link in with the Hub area.
One of Mainzeal’s key tasks is to minimise disruption to the staff and students. The team is careful to keep all aspects of the construction impact to a minimum. One mitigating measure was to fit external acoustic glazed screens to teaching areas on levels 1 and 3 of Old Kirk and level 3 of Easterfield. Another was to acoustically treat all interface partitioning.