Deanwell School

Part of the Ministry of Education’s weathertightness remediation programme, the 1970s hall at Deanwell School in Hamilton was in one of the worst states our team had seen in recent years.

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.

A collaborative approach calling on the expert services of our sister company Prendos led to detailed and well-coordinated multi-disciplinary designs. This resulted in a construction phase that ran incredibly smoothly and stayed on schedule – almost unheard of with remediation projects.

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. The entrance was reconfigured as 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.