PAUA Architects is delighted that the Hukanui Primary School ‘Garden to Table’ Enviroclassroom has won a Learning Environments New Zealand (LENZ) Award.
PAUA worked with the students of the school's enviro-elective and their teacher, Michelle White, to develop a brief and a design for the new building, called the ‘Living Room Kitchen’.
The award citation reads "This project reveals the worth in pursuing solid student engagement throughout an entire design, research and build phase. The breadth and depth of student involvement is comprehensive, valuable and not tokenistic. The outcome is a showpiece of the Enviroschools principles, and clearly meets the holistic approach of the school’s philosophy whilst ensuring a high level of educational value. The project is an excellent example of innovation, including waste reduction, water conservation, ventilation, lighting, and heating solutions, all integrated into the educational value of the design."
The 'Garden to Table' kitchen classroom provides students of Hukanui Primary School a learning space for preparation, cooking, and sharing of food grown by the students. The kitchen classroom complements the 'Living Room', constructed in 2009 as a dedicated space for the Enviroschools elective. The kitchen classroom provides six kitchen workstations for groups of students to prepare produce grown in the fruit and vegetable gardens adjacent.
The kitchen classroom was an initiative proposed by the students and commissioned by the Board of Trustees. The students participated in both the design and construction of the kitchen classroom.
The design of the building reflects the form, proportion and materiality of the 'Living Room', appearing as a pair. The proposed site is small, constrained by sports fields to both the north and east, the 'Living Room' to the south , and gardens to the west. An existing freestanding pizza oven was incorporated in the design of the kitchen. Existing rakau ti kouka/cabbage trees were retained and will become part of perimeter gardens which will be developed in 2020. The exposed macrocarpa trusses provide for a generous interior space with colour scheme selected by the students. The resilient non-slip flooring, complete with glitter flake, appealed to the design team and children alike.
Rainwater is collected for use in the garden and kitchen waste water is disposed of on site. Louvres at both high and low levels provide for passive ventilation, assisted by mechanical extraction as required. Skylights in the south plane of the roof provide both daylight and additional ventilation.
Learning Environments New Zealand promotes quality design of learning spaces and professional development amongst a community of educators, designers and decision-makers.
