Out of the box
PHOTOS Sarah Rowlands ARCHITECT Sheppard & Rout
Step inside a former commercial warehouse building in Northcote and prepare to be amazed. Where forklifts once roamed is now a unique school campus, complete with covered sports courts and a wondrous timber chapel. Welcome to the new Marian College.
Having spent years looking for a permanent replacement site after their school was badly damaged in the 2011 earthquakes, this Catholic girls’ college eventually found a great spot close to St Bede’s College and St Joseph’s School for their new home. The only problem was their chosen site already had a big old warehouse on it. Rather than opting for demolition, the college hit upon an audacious alternative – building the school inside the warehouse. Sheppard & Rout Architects designed the award-winning transformation that has delivered a school that is quite unlike any other.
Jasper van der Lingen, Director of Sheppard & Rout, recalls feeling slightly intimidated on his first visit to the warehouse.
“Here was this massive 17,000 square metre space that a school needed to go into,” says Jasper. “Toll Logistics were still moving out. Originally, it was a Foodstuffs warehouse. From what I understand, it was the largest warehouse in the Southern Hemisphere at that time. It was built in a series of bays from the 1950s and had quite a chaotic interior in terms of how it was structured.”
The clever design solution involved carefully placing two-storey, prefabricated timber forms inside, not touching the warehouse structure but winding through it.
“That really unlocked it. Another huge bonus of this warehouse was how much covered space we had at our disposal: the layout includes four covered sports courts, lots of breakout areas, and a communal atrium space that functions as the social heart of the school.”
Undoubtedly, the school’s spiritual heart is the new timber chapel that lies right at the front of the building, which is what people see first when going inside. Sheppard & Rout won the design commission for this chapel separately from the main school design. Judges at the 2024 Interior Awards, where Sheppard & Rout recently won the Education Award for the Marian College project, have described this jewel-like chapel as ‘the taonga’ of the space, serving as a place of reflection for akonga and hapori alike.
The school’s cultural narrative, gifted by local iwi, is based around Te Pae Māhutonga or the Southern Cross constellation. Look up at the chapel ceiling today and that constellation can be seen, floating there as part of a laser-cut celestial display that also represents the night sky as it would have looked on the day Marian College first opened in 1982. The spine of the chapel is open to the warehouse canopy, nicely contrasting the sacred space with the surrounding raw industrial aesthetic.
“From what I hear, the chapel has been a huge success. A lot of students go in there in the morning to spend a few moments decompressing and leaving the outside world behind. It is a calm, safe place – it feels like a sanctuary.”
Sustainability was a key priority for the college. Saving the warehouse in the first place speaks to that ethos. It also drove Sheppard & Rout’s selection of timber for the school buildings. “What’s more, we chose locally made timber products drawing on local forestry sources.”
The repurposed interior feels light and modern and the school’s strong primary colours set a pleasing palette. All the new classroom and admin spaces are fully heated, air conditioned, and ventilated. In the main warehouse space, ceiling-mounted radiant heaters have been selectively placed where needed, such as above the main assembly area.
It has been an exciting year for Marian College since fully opening here at the start of this year. The awards keep coming for their highly innovative school in a warehouse. As well as the 2024 Interior Award, Sheppard & Rout Architects has won a 2024 Local Architecture Award for this project and a merit at the 2024 Property Industry Awards.
Jasper says it has been a big team effort involving Armitage Williams (construction), Powell Fenwick Consultants (engineering), TSA (project management), and Rawlinsons (QS), along with the Sheppard & Rout team. “I wish to particularly acknowledge Joff Kennedy and Chris Murphy as well as the Catholic Diocese. This project simply could not have happened without their courageous vision.”
Sheppard & Rout is a multi-award-winning practice, excelling in both local and national architecture awards. “We are proud to be acknowledged for best architecture spanning a wide diversity of projects over many years.”