The Textile Centre
The Textile Centre
Project
Commercial
Location
1 Kenwyn Street
Parnell
Client
Rockport Holdings Ltd
Value
$2 Million
Period
10 Months
Consultants
Architect /
T Plus
Engineer /
Babbage
In 2021, Haydn & Rollett returned to Parnell’s Textile Centre, the old New Zealand Shipping Company wool stores that have recently been reinvented as a business hub and workspace for 700-odd workers. Previously, Haydn & Rollett’s team had built two architecturally designed bathroom suites at the Centre that incorporated bespoke metalwork and contemporary fixtures into the character-rich historic fabric. This time the project involved demolishing and removing a shower block that at some point had been added between a pair of buildings in the woolstore cluster, and inserting in its place a multi-level, steel and glass lightwell, with bridges to allow the buildings’ users to move freely between the two structures.
It was a tricky operation for a few reasons. Firstly, the space was tight – instead of using a crane, everything had to be manually winched into place. As well, a lot of thought had to go in to how to safely anchor the modern elements into the historic bricks and other material. Finally, to enable the Centre to continue to operate as usual, most of the work had to be performed at night.
In addition to the lightwell/bridge, Haydn & Rollett completed a new bathroom suite on Level 3. As with previous projects at the Textile Centre, the build was complicated by the fact that nothing in the building was particularly level or square. Among other moves, the team dropped the level of the floor to ensure the new tiling finish would be flush with the original timber flooring.