Recreation + Wellness Centre

Renderings: MJMA, Warren & Mahoney

CONNECTING, GAMIFYING MOVEMENT AND MAXIMIZING WELLBEING

UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND WAIPAPA TAUMATA RAU RECREATION + WELLNESS CENTRE

The Recreation and Wellness Centre (RWC) will be a 9-storey complex serving the recreational needs for University of Auckland’s -Waipapa Taumata Rau – 40,000 students – located at the heart of the student and science precinct. The new 22,000 m² facility will house three large volumes: a 1,500-seat event sports hall, a practice sports hall, and an aquatics hall, along with associated fitness, studios, squash, and social spaces.

The architectural design focuses on a massing strategy with extensive canopies at grade to mitigate solar heat gain as well high-performance cladding geared to maximize views while reducing heat load. Auckland-Tāmaki Makaurau is generally a temperate climate with little need for cooling loads.

Split, stack, and alternate Raising the sports halls and placing the aquatic hall below grade frees the ground plane and allows for fluid movement through the site and the creation of a new symbolic student plaza. As one rises from street level to roof running track, a major program volume occurs at each level. These venues are alternated on either side of a central fitness core in order to optimize user participation and engagement. Unify the student precinct Clerestory glazing above the pool hall connects swimmer and pedestrian, while views to the RWC’s fitness stair and upper running track further animate and connect indoor and outdoor activities – welcoming the uninitiated. Clearance over the diving board forms an island “land-form” as the focal point of the plaza and symbol of the region’s ancient topography. Maximize well-being The upper roof offers an outdoor running track, programmable fitness space, and elevated views to Auckland and its majestic harbor. Students who do not identify with „athletics or recreation“ are welcomed to participate through deliberately integrated social, leisure and outreach spaces at all levels, including a café, retail, therapy, napping pods, table tennis, soft seating, and touch-down spaces that create estuarial gateways to the larger sport spaces throughout the building.

Gamify movement with a vibrant core Vibrant and vertical movement is the building’s fitness and social animator. A key design approach is to reduce the stair count to two, optimizing them to deliver multiple functions: emergency exits, fitness loop, social convener, and daylight providers. 3-m wide stairs and smart building technology provide a “gamified” fitness circuit interlinking leisure and wellness spaces on each level, linking indoor and rooftop tracks to form a continuous 500-m vertical fitness circuit.