Auckland designer Angus Muir has designed and built a new information centre for city-centre residents and visitors. Amidst all the disruption from large transport and high-rise projects, the city needed a physical information centre to communicate the changes with residents and visitors. 

Angus has transformed two shipping containers internally and externally to create an information centre for categories such as arts and culture, cycleways, walking routes, heritage spaces, urban forests and Māori sites of significance. A joint project between Auckland Council and Auckland Transport, Pā Rongorongo contains up-to-date information on all the construction work downtown and allows people to customise their walking tours of the area. 

Doubling as an art installation, the exterior glows in different colours at night, while inside, a warm plywood interior acts as a display and learning space. Angus has used prefinished PlyPlay™ Naturally Naked and designed a series of slots in the board to accommodate a custom click system. This allows shelves, signage, story panels, and 3D cityscape models to be clipped onto the wall for display. 

‘PlyPlay gave us a hard-wearing, beautiful clear finish,’ says Angus. ‘Being precoated made the whole process more streamlined, which was ideal for creating a temporary space.’

CREDITS

Project: Pā Rongorongo, Auckland
Client: Auckland Council and Auckland Transport
Design and build: Angus Muir Design
Graphic design: Brogen Averill
Photographer: Asher Walker
Text: Folio