TOUR 16 - INNOVATIVE CIVIC ATTRACTIONS
A visit to the award winning library Tūranga and to the award winning child-designed biggest children’s playground in the Southern Hemisphere. Innovations and originality in civic spaces with strong cultural narrative references.
MARGARET MAHY PLAYGROUND
Architect: Opus International Consultants
Type: New Build
The playground reflects the diverse landscape of the Port Hills. The design team combined inspiring and colourful elements, creating a 130 m ‘story arc’ pathway using elements from the stories of local children’s writers. You will have fun exploring water play, slides, climbing nets and small artworks.
TŪRANGA LIBRARY
Architect: Architectus in partnership with Schmidt hammer lassen
Type: New BuildTūranga is the largest library in the South Island and pushes the boundaries of what is a library. The cost of the award-winning library was $92.7m and opened in October 2018. Visitors enter Tūranga in Cathedral Square through a large welcoming foyer designed to be an extension of the public open space of the square.
This ground floor “urban carpet” acts as a link to the neighbouring Performing Arts Precinct and Convention Centre, with a cafe, retail space and an area displaying new technology.
The first floor has a 200-seat community arena, exhibition space, and areas for families, children and youth. Children love the ‘Harry Potter’ staircase.
The top three floors house the bulk of the library’s digital, specialist and print collections along with meeting, recreation and activity areas. The structure consists of large post-tensioned concrete walls with viscous dampers to provide a low damage structural system along with a steel moment resisting frame structure to the perimeter.