Warren & Mahoney Architects

MIT Manukau & Transport Interchange

MIT Manukau & Transport Interchange

MIT Manukau & Transport Interchange

Warren and Mahoney

PHOTOS
Simon Devitt Photographer (5), Patrick Reynolds (4)

LOCATION
Manukau, Auckland, New Zealand

SIZE
100,000 sqft - 300,000 sqft

YEAR
2014

TYPE
Educational › University, Transport + Infrastructure › Train/Subway

MIT Manukau & Transport Interchange

MIT Manukau integrates two essential elements: a 20,000sq.m learning facility for the Manukau Institute of Technology (MIT) and a new Auckland Transport railway station. 

By seamlessly weaving together education and transport, MIT Manukau represents a complete departure from conventional education design.

MIT Manukau & Transport Interchange
MIT Manukau & Transport Interchange
MIT Manukau & Transport Interchange

The people of South Auckland enrol in tertiary education at a rate only half the national average. MIT’s mission is to open up the possibility of study in the minds of their community.

Correspondingly, MIT Manukau is designed to eliminate barriers to entry and invite people to engage with the possibilities of learning.

By integrating the campus with the public transport system, commuters entering the building are exposed to the heart of MIT and its programmes, consequently reaching the widest possible audience.

MIT Manukau & Transport Interchange
MIT Manukau & Transport Interchange
MIT Manukau & Transport Interchange

The ground floor expresses an open invitation to all who approach – a feeling magnified by the soaring six storey atrium. Learning spaces themselves are not formal. Instead, they are flexible, open and designed for student interaction.

Aesthetically, the building has the responsibility to reflect the values and aspirations of MIT while also providing an appropriate response to the community’s cultural diversity.

The design response has generated a structurally integrated approach incorporating the direct use of materials, finishes and environmental techniques.

MIT Manukau & Transport Interchange
MIT Manukau & Transport Interchange
MIT Manukau & Transport Interchange

The interaction of raking ‘diamond brace’ columns, transverse external steel beam lines, and external horizontal sun shading produces a complex but repeating pattern that is evocative of not one, but many cultures and many points of view.

Internally, the architecture is conceived as a simple framework - a ‘coathanger’ for students to dress with their own identities, to hang the cloak of the community on.

MIT Manukau & Transport Interchange
MIT Manukau & Transport Interchange

It is a very adaptable, open space, incorporating warm timber and vibrant colour; built with long term flexibility to evolve with both the identity of the community and contemporary educational pedagogy.


MIT Manukau & Transport Interchange
MIT Manukau & Transport Interchange
MIT Manukau & Transport Interchange
MIT Manukau & Transport Interchange


MIT Manukau & Transport Interchange
MIT Manukau & Transport Interchange


MIT Manukau & Transport Interchange

Warren & Mahoney Architects
T +64 9 3094894
Warren & Mahoney Architects
139 Pakenham Street West, Auckland CBD, Auckland 1010, New Zealand