Te Pae Convention Centre was envisaged as one of the landmarked projects that formed part of the Christchurch rebuild and designed to continue to establish the strong cultural narrative throughout the central city.
A collaboration of design from the architects; Woods Bagot in association with Warren and Mahoney whilst working alongside the local iwi from Matapopore Charitable Trust. Urban regeneration and innovation were part of their vision for the City Centre.T he convention centre is the city’s local gathering place an architectural and social landmark designed as a welcoming heart in the centre of the city. Te Pae has been carefully designed and purpose-built to respond to the full range of events from intimate to larger New Zealand and International events.
The key features of the Te Pae Convention centre has a total of 28,000m2 flexible spaces including a 1400 person tiered Auditorium, divisible into two 700 person seating; 2800m2 Exhibition space; a 1000 Seat Banquet space overlooking the beautiful and iconic Otakaro Avon River and 24 Meeting Rooms with capacities of 50 to 1500 people. With four distinct foyers – Exhibition, Dobson, Ground Floor and Level One giving visitors and attendees easy access and exit points such as Cathedral Square, Oxford Terrace, and The Avon River Precinct.
Acknowledging the importance of the Otakaro Avon River promenade, the design anticipates that this will be active and occupied as a preferred locationfor both locals and visitors to meet and mix. By providing an undulating plan and section, the project provides comfortable human scaled ‘microclimates’to maximize dwell time. Similarly, the sweeping organic curves of Te Pae’s exterior inspired by the Canterbury’s braided rivers was a key influence for both the exterior paving and the carpets throughout the building. GH Commercial's product development team collaborated with the Architects to develop custom woven carpet for public spaces and custom Designer Jet® tiles used in back-of house areas.
A sumptuous 52oz/yd2 custom hand carved Axminister carpet crafted in durable 80:20 wool; synthetic, was designed for the Banquet space, pre-function areas and front-of-house meeting rooms. Designed with sweeping curvilinear colour-blocking in charcoal, mid-grey and light-grey hues the woven carpet required meticulous planning. Every roll of carpet had to be manufactured in a precise order and individually labelled, as no roll was the same pattern or length, and it all had to fit together like a giant jigsaw during carpet installation.
"It was critical to ensure that no colour transition occurred at a seam and when installed that the flowing braided river design flowed continuously." - GH Commercial
GH Commercial also developed two cushion-backed Designer Jet® carpet tiles that were installed in the back-of-house meeting rooms, offices, control room, hallways, and an administrative building on Columbo Street, utilising the same charcoal, mid-grey and light-grey tones in a broken striated pattern. No detail was spared, no colour or carpeted pathway was by coincidence. Carefully considered to work within the surrounding heritage architecture, incorporating cultural and environmental vision drawing inspiration from Canterbury’s unsurpassed landscapes, Te Pae highlights the reembodied city focus and urban upbeat vibe. A remarkable piece of architecture and design.
Product: Feltex Woven Carpet, Custom designs
Architect: Woods Bagot and Warren and Mahoney
Year completed: 2021
