Ironbank (Auckland)
Encyclopedia
Ironbank is a 4,500-m2, six-level mixed-used (retail and office) development on Karangahape Road
Karangahape Road
Karangahape Road is one of the main streets in the central business district of Auckland, New Zealand. The massive expansion of motorways through the nearby inner city area - and subsequent flight of residents and retail into the suburbs - turned it from one of Auckland's premier shopping streets...

, Auckland City
Auckland City
Auckland City was the city and local authority covering the Auckland isthmus and most of the islands of the Hauraki Gulf, in the North Island of New Zealand. On 1 November 2010 it was amalgamated into the wider Auckland Region under the authority of the new Auckland Council...

, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

. The building also provides a mechanical, automated car stacker for 96 cars, which the robotic system racks in a four-level storage wall. Recently in 2010, Olympia Parking Systems expanded the automated car stacker to 114 Cars. With this, the car stacker parks cars 2 deep (one behind the other) in some areas of the Car park and, subsequently,always keeps one space available. This available space means that if the rear car was to be retrieved the System would firstly re-locate the first one to this available spot and travel back to retrieve the rear , second car.
It also used a variety of environmentally friendly building facilities, such as reduced energy demands due to a design that can dispense with air conditioning.

The seven-storey building has both been criticised and lauded for looking like "rusting containers", and an architecture critic noted it reminded him of "kindergarten day in a shipping yard", calling it the "most complex and adventurous building" of RTA Studio (designed for Samson Corporation). The building is hoped to achieve 5-star Green Building
Green building
Green building refers to a structure and using process that is environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle: from siting to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and demolition...

 certification.

In 2009, it received three architecture awards, in the "commercial", "sustainable" and "urban design" categories of the New Zealand Institute of Architects
New Zealand Institute of Architects
The New Zealand Institute of Architects is a membership based professional organisation. This body represents 90% of all registered architects in New Zealand and promotes architecture that enhances the New Zealand living environment....

 Auckland awards sponsored by the paint company Resene. It then captured second place at the World Architecture Festival
World Architecture Festival
The World Architecture Festival is an annual event held in Barcelona organised by EMAP, a media group that runs other festivals, including the World Retail Congress and Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, as well as publishes various journals, including within the field of...

, a European award, making it the best-scoring New Zealand entrant ever at the festival, and being praised for "Its sophisticated attitude to the messy urbanity of south-central Auckland".

It was also mentioned in a The New Zealand Herald
The New Zealand Herald
- External links :* * *...

series where prominent Aucklanders nominated outstanding Auckland buildings constructed since 2000. Urban designer Ludo Campbell-Reid specifically noted that the building was greater than the sum of its parts, that it would help re-invigorate Karangahape Road and its backstreets, and that unlike most buildings, it looked better from the back than from the front side.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK