Kainga Ora and HUD, Wellington

7 Waterloo Quay is a large multi-storey building located on the Pipitea waterfront in Wellington, New Zealand. This iconic tower owned by Argosy Properties has gone through a major upgrade and repositioning to improve the building’s infrastructure, allowing it to offer high-scale, flexible spaces for future office tenants. As such, Te Tūāpapa Kura Kāinga – Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) staff took the opportunity and leased six of the available office floors.

Kāinga Ora and HUD staff had staff located in various buildings within Wellington, and this project enables them to work in one central location. Despite being separate government units, both departments work together on several projects. The fitout for both government units spans 10,000 square metres in six floors (three floors for each tenant). NDY, having been involved in numerous projects for the building since 2012, was engaged to design the spaces for both Kāinga Ora and HUD. This is because we have an excellent understanding of the operating systems within the building, including all base-building reinstatement and tenancy works for most of the current occupants.

Whilst the end clients were Kāinga Ora and HUD, Unispace contracted NDY for the project. NDY has completed projects with Unispace including College Hill in Auckland and Meridian Wellington. The client’s design for this project had unique architectural features which required complex engineering solutions. Our job was to ensure that the solutions we provide are not only functional, but efficient. Since every project has its challenges, the accelerated design programme, combined with the delay in the construction phase due to of Covid-19, meant that the project timing would be affected. These challenges had no significant impact to the quality of NDY’s design solutions, and we were able to meet the Unispace’s vision within a tight programme nonetheless.