12 Madden

Simon Devitt

• Architects

Designed to super-charge co-working and collaboration, 12 Madden sits at the heart of Auckland’s Innovation Precinct. Freelancers, entrepreneurs, start-ups, established small and medium sized businesses, and corporate teams all rub shoulders over three buildings and 17,500m2. The precinct blends existing maritime industries with residentials, civic, hospitality, retail and commercial activities.

photo_credit Simon Devitt — Simon Devitt

The building and the wider precinct aspires to reflect the emerging identity of Auckland as a young, multi-cultural, ambitious South-Pacific city. The Wynyard Innovation Precinct will be a destination for all Aucklanders – the public face of an innovative city, and a vibrant and accessible place that will entertain, inform and inspire.

12 Madden was conceived from the outset as an enabler of the public realm – a building which can define and activate adjacent laneways, introducing a strong sense of human scale and an authentic character into a new part of the city. The project is equally informed by external (urban) and internal (workplace) influences.

Our approach for 12 Madden was centered on identifying unique project insights that provided the framework to guide our design response. These insights layered upon and enhanced the initial client brief beyond an immediate commercial proposition, allowing the design to respond to the urban structure and in turn inform and develop the largely undefined building programme.

The design team met regularly with all key stakeholders, from client to landowner, iwi, artists and other developers and architects working in the same precinct. We also had early engagement with the building lessee and their design team which resulted in a fully integrated development.

Risk was mitigated through curating a like-minded and trusted project team, and by engaging in regular risk workshops from the outset and referring to identified risks as the project proceeded. The consultant team fostered a high level of trust, collaboration and communication that enabled issues to be openly discussed and resolved.

At the 2019 New Zealand Architecture Awards, organised by Te Kahui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects, the Sir Miles Warren Award for Commercial Architecture was given to 12 Madden.