College of Creative Arts building, Massey University, Wellington

The College of Creative Arts building is about design integration: integrating the structural, services and functionalelements of the building and expressing them as the architecture.Athfield Architects won a design competition to create the new home for Massey University Wellington’s College ofCreative Arts. Their successful design uses timber as a warm, inviting and uniting element throughout the building. As afunctional space, the different areas are open and flexible. The structural use of timber softens and modulates thevolume.By using innovative damage-control design, the college can rely on the structure to perform both seismically andarchitecturally over the years.