Warren and Mahoney’s NZi3 hovers at the edge of the University of Canterbury campus signalling high-tech attitude and function. Text by Andrea Stevens.

NZi3, the national ICT Innovation Institute at the University of Canterbury Christchurch, is a technological hothouse.

It provides an environment for post-graduate and joint industry-academic research projects. It represents New Zealand’s first dedicated ICT research centre linking academia with industry.

Warren and Mahoney were tasked to create a building that would cater to a dynamically changing culture, have appropriate security and privacy, and a high degree of flexibility.

Above all the aesthetic of the building needed to signal a culture shift by appearing open and accessible. Its location on the public edge of campus, a fully glazed reception and function room and space station-style research floor, sets it apart from its mid-century academic cousins of the engineering school.

“NZi3 needed to respond to a quantum change that has occurred in engineering disciplines – that of advanced computer design, imaging and exploration,” says design director Andrew Barclay.

For the full text turn to page 160 of Indesign #42 on newsstands now.

Photography by Simon Devitt