Maori Women’s Welfare League, Thorndon, Wellington

The brief for this project is to completely refurbish the Maori Women’s Welfare League’s existing premises to provide comfortable, light-filled offices, meeting rooms and accommodation space. The challenge was to provide a building that provides an identity to the League, add positively to the streetscape and meet the spatial and aesthetic brief of the client, within the tight planning regulations for the site.

The primary form of the original house is retained with new additions to the front and rear. A decorative timber screen drapes around the garage and wraps into the main entry. This detail is the metaphoric cloak that adds a further level of detail and finery to the street frontage and provides identity to the League.
The new addition to the front of the house is an enclosed sun porch which acts as an entry and reception gallery.

Additions to the rear open out on to new decks and overlook the landscaped courtyard below.