Beside Tāmaki Makaurau’s fabulous – and popular – new harbour swimming pool, just off the Karanga Steps at Wynyard Quarter, you’ll find a new set of changing sheds. Carbon positive and built from scrap materials, they’re charming and fun, as well as being low-impact. Pac Studio’s Sarosh Mulla tells us more.
Here: What makes a good changing shed?
Sarosh Mulla: The same as what makes any architecture good: a sprinkling of the unexpected, craft and the feeling that someone gave a damn in designing and building it. It doesn’t matter if it’s a small project or a big one, it can still be joyous.
H: How did the project come about?
SM: Eke Panuku was tasked with creating the new swimming facilities at the Karanga Plaza and we were asked to inject a little fun into the changing sheds. Over the years we’ve worked on a few activation projects for the city. The changing sheds are the latest in that series. We love these projects as they allow us to test new ideas for a wider audience.
H: The materials are key – tell us about them.
SM: The framing is damaged and rejected lengths of Abodo Vulcan timber. The idea of using their waste material was something that grew out of an earlier discussion with them around finding ways to use their pre-consumer waste. They had also been working on creating a shingle product that made use of this type of waste in their production of Vulcan weatherboards. So we used these as the cladding. Abodo Vulcan is great to work with – it’s sustainable, straight and lightweight. For the interior, I wanted a smoother surface so you didn’t “snag your cardy” on the timber. We teamed up with Critical to make a custom Cleanstone board from salvaged fishing nets, plastic bags and packaging that would otherwise have ended up in landfill and our oceans. I love that when you get changed you can see little flecks of the fishing nets. It feels good to know it’s in the walls and not in the water.
H: How much carbon does it save?
SM: We’re doing the calculations now, but to me the accounting is less important than knowing that it’s made from stuff that would have otherwise gone to landfill. What’s even better is that you can’t tell.
Karanga Plaza Harbour Pool
Wynyard Quarter, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland
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