By Sheppard & Rout Architects
The initial brief from the School of Landscape Architecture called for an inspirational and energy-efficient design to house the School and five computer suites for Lincoln University. The building is intended to be an exciting and stimulating building with a variety of spaces enriched with a palette of exposed materials.
The building was designed on the premise that learning, especially in a design-orientated School, takes place not only in the studio and lecture halls, but also in the informal discussions that occur in corridors, lobbies and courtyards. An ‘internal street’ that runs along the northern side of the building was designed to link many of the School’s programmes together and incite informal learning. Furthermore, circulation paths, stairs and landings are generous in size and open into studios or connect to existing spaces of the campus.
The major environmentally efficient design move taken is the two storey north facing timber screen that wraps up and over the main building to let winter sun in and keep summer sun out. The floor and walls of the internal street are constructed of heavy thermal mass materials to passively store energy and regulate temperature, avoiding the need for energy hungry air conditioning.
We aim to produce humanist architecture comprised of stimulating and inspirational spaces and places.
We are a design-based practice that believes in providing tailor-made solutions to an individual client's needs. The fundamental objective of the practice is to develop architecture that is appropriate to its specific site, wider context and intended use while being robust, flexible and environmentally-aware.
These variables are used along with the appropriate structural considerations to develop buildings with well-suited form and style, instead of approaching the design from a stylistic standpoint.
The practice was established in 1982 in Christchurch by David Sheppard and Jonty Rout. In its 40 years the practice has carried out a wide range of projects covering many types and in numerous geographic locations. The founding partners brought to the practice extensive design and construction experience gained while working with other offices in both New Zealand and overseas. Tim Dagg joined Sheppard & Rout in 1986 and Jasper van der Lingen in 1993 and they both joined David Sheppard as Directors in 2006.
With David Sheppard now retired and Jonty very sadly passed away the practice is led by Directors Jasper van der Lingen and Tim Dagg and three Associate Directors; Matt Gutsell, Jonathan Kennedy and Steven Orr.