Herriot Melhuish O’Neill Architects - Wellington, Christchurch, Auckland, Tauranga
Maori Women's Welfare League Frontage. Wellington

Māori Women's Welfare League

Wellington

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A significant yet sensitive refurbishment of the Māori Women’s Welfare League in the historic Wellington suburb of Thorndon resulting in comfortable, light-filled offices, meeting rooms and accommodation spaces. The challenge was to provide a contemporary identity for the League, while positively contributing to the streetscape and meeting the spatial and aesthetic brief of the client (within the site’s tight planning and heritage regulations).

Awards: NZIA Local Award 2011.

The primary form of the original house was retained, while being moved across the site to allow new additions to the front and rear. A decorative timber screen drapes around the garage and wraps into the main entry. This detail is the metaphoric cloak that adds a further level of detail and finery to the street frontage and provides identity to the League. The new addition to the front of the house is an enclosed sun porch which acts as an entry and reception gallery. Additions to the rear open out on to new decks and overlook the landscaped courtyard below.