Claudeland'S Events Centre

With a vision to provide a world class venue, and capture the economic benefits for the city, the Claudeland’s Event Centre was born.

The site is unique by world standards and set on 34 hectacres of parkland within a 10 minute walk of the city centre. This space provided the opportunity for facilities and environmental considerations denied to many venues.

For the re development of Claudelands Chow Hill architects, a company that specialises in large complex design projects, were commissioned by Hamilton City Council. To ensure the project met world standards and reflected “best practices” Chow Hill brought in Populous, an architectural firm based in Brisbane, who specialise in the design of sports facilities and convention centres.

The brief was to deliver a world class venue that could claim to be the best in Australasia, would be within the 68.4 million dollar budget and meet the proposed sustainability objective of a 4 star rating.

Much of the design philosophy of the centre reflects the pre-European history when the area boasted one
of the largest Kahikatea and Tawa forests in New Zealand known as TePapanui. (a bird snarer’s seat or
large flat land).

The rich bird life, in particular the Kuku (native pigeon) and the Kahu huruhuru (feathered cloak) and the
Tao (long spears) are amongst the many cultural elements that influence the sculptured and aesthetic forms used in the design of Claudelands.

The Claudelands Event Centre is designed to be multi-functional offering the flexibility to accommodate a wide variety of activities.

The Arena has a 4,200 seat Auditorium, with the capacity to host up to 6,000 guests in various  configurations. A C-shaped seating bowl provides an intimate atmosphere for performances, with most seats within 65 metres of the stage. Corporate hospitality spaces and numerous support areas allow the building to be used in a wide variety of ways.

The Conference Centre has a 1,000m2 main hall on the ground floor and 400m2 of meeting rooms upstairs that can be combined or subdivided. The existing shell of the original exhibition hall was strengthened and upgraded to house the new conference and main catering spaces.

Adjoining the Conference Centre is a new exhibition hall that is comprised of two large halls of 2,000m2 each. The exhibition space combines a 10,000 square metre indoor and outdoor exhibition area.

The development incorporates a strong focus on environmental sustainability – which has been factored into the design, construction and ongoing operation of the facility.

With no official green star rating available, for event centres, the New Zealand Green Building Councils standards were used as a guide.

From the recycling of demolition materials onsite to the use of excavated material in building earthen bunds - each aspect of sustainable development has been considered. Approximately 9000 native trees have been planted, a grassed parking area provided and all water is collected onsite and utilised in a variety of ways including sanitation and irrigation.

Installation of high efficiency air conditioning systems, energy efficient lighting and lighting control systems, and installation of the latest LED street and pedestrian lighting will all help to minimise the venue’s energy usage.

In fact there are very few environmental aspects that have not been considered in the development of the Centre. Transport, recycling of waste, CO2 monitoring, air-conditioning, solar heating and light control
and noise reduction all play a role in minimising the environmental impact of the project.

Dimond Roofing supplied a number of products used in the project. DP955 on the roof, Veedek for the upper wall cladding and DimondClad Rib 50 for the lower cladding areas.

Geoff Pickford from GAP Roofing and Roofing Specialists were contracted by Foster’s Construction to fix both the roofing and cladding on the project, Geoff says, “the wide cover of DP955 made it extremely easy to lay significant areas, and the pan width & strength allowed for easy movement of both roofers and sub
trades with minimal damage.”

Architects Chow Hill

Chow:Hill, established in 1992, focuses on providing leadership in strategic planning, architecture, urban design, interior design and landscape architecture.

“Our dreams form the foundation for our success and our ability to facilitate and inspire the dreams of others is the reason people choose to work with us as colleagues or as clients. Fundamental to our ability to achieve our dream is our ability to lead. Inspired Dreams need inspired Leadership.”

The essence of Chow:Hill is Total Design. This is a holistic, creative philosophy that integrates design disciplines, characterises leadership style, informs their design and management processes and describes the way they run their business.