Prendos building surveyors initially carried out an inspection and feasibility study on the school hall at Deanwell School in Hamilton in 2021. The building was brought into the Ministry of Education’s weathertightness remediation programme, which covers hundreds of schools nationwide. But this 1970s hall was by far one of the worst cases of weathertightness issues our team had seen in recent years.
Several active leaks were regularly allowing water into the building, and the interior was dark with few windows, limited ventilation and mould and water stains on the ceilings and walls. The leaks were so bad that by the time our design team at Respond Architects provided concept designs, the entire building had been shrink-wrapped for a year to allow the school to keep using the facility.
Normally remediation projects such as this would be a case of replacing cladding or roofing like for like. But because the overall condition of this building was so dire, it presented an opportunity to deliver a much better outcome for the school. Our architects presented concepts to the MoE for a straightforward like-for-like replacement, and another for a more extensive redesign of the roofing structure, together with costings provided by our in-house quantity surveyors. With the costs and benefits clearly laid out as part of a feasibility study, the MoE opted for the redesign option.
One of the main changes to the building design, recommended by our building surveyors, was the replacement of the original sloping mansard roof with straight walls, featuring larger opening windows. “This was one of the best decisions we made,” says architect Cici Zheng. “It resolved the weathertightness issues, but it also added value for the school as it created a much larger volume space inside, with more natural lighting and ventilation.”
This aspect of the redesign presented challenges, as structural engineering was required for the new walls. Structural strengthening was also required for other parts of the building, and the gable end wall – located close to the property boundary – needed a 120-minute fire rating to comply with Building Code Fire Safety requirements.
“Having our engineers in-house was a very big advantage in terms of working through some tricky engineering and fire rating issues,” says Prendos director and lead architect, Natasha Cockerell. “Being able to do that face to face with our in-house structural engineer Georgina Wooldridge made a big difference.”
This collaboration led to detailed and well-coordinated multi-disciplinary designs, which resulted in a construction phase that ran incredibly smoothly and stayed on schedule – almost unheard of with remediation projects.
Our building surveyors also remained involved, providing inspections of exposed timber framing once the cladding was removed to assess which timber needed to be replaced. Their previous experience with the building fabric was beneficial, and it was also helpful that our Bay of Plenty team could carry out the work, speeding up the process and keeping travel to a minimum.
Aside from solving the weathertightness issues and creating a bigger, brighter, healthier space, there were other benefits for the school too. With a high Māori roll and strong ties to the local iwi and marae, the school also wanted to refresh the entrance way to create a more welcoming formal entry for visitors. Our designers reconfigured the entrance, adding a traditional waharoa (gateway) where the school could perform a pōwhiri (formal welcome) for guests. The wide maihi (barge boards) were added to enable the school to mount carvings or artwork.
This project exemplifies the benefit of collaboration between the cross-disciplinary team at Prendos. With all the necessary expertise under one roof, communication was open and efficient. This led to better outcomes for the school, as well as time and cost savings, with the project completed in just seven months.
The end result for Deanwell School is a modern, fit-for-purpose facility that meets natural lighting and ventilation standards, and fire safety requirements, as well as delivering significant additional benefits in terms of its appearance and amenity.
