Steel Visitor Centre

Scheme, Manukau Harbour The design response for the Visitor Centre is to create a functional, flexible and iconic building for a steel manufacturer. The design is about innovation and functionality in promoting the use of steel products. The intention was to create an appealing building that will become synonymous with quality and innovation. It is a pleasant journey to reach the site. Negotiating ones way through rich pastoral land, the Glenbrook Steel Mill is located amongst rural properties on the edge ofthe Manukau Harbour. The presence of industrial activity is concealed behind a perimeter of mature trees and planting. It is the "boundary" that makes us aware of entering/exiting, approaching/leaving, beginning/ending, secure/unsecured. The Visitors Centre is contained within an existing set of boundaries and borders that create order and containment. The new Visitor Centre needs to respect the landscape and make a positive statement to those that enter the mill site. Man made structures and machinery constantly operate and move against the powerful and motionless back-drop of the Manukau Heads. Activity on the site is constant, views from the building project out towards the backdrop of activity of the steel mill.