In March 2023, the Winter Gardens were fully re-opened to the public following a complex two-year project to seismically upgrade and undertake major repairs and improvements to the glasshouses and wider site. The repairs and strengthening works were complex and required a number of changes to the structures, which have been carried out with the utmost care and attention to detail to ensure that the heritage values of the place have been protected and enhanced. This icon site has been conserved for the future. This has been accomplished on time and within the original estimates on behalf of Auckland Council.
The removal of an existing exhibition in the house, some 25 years old, and the installation of a less imposing display of original owner James Busby’s life about the time of the Treaty signing returned some doors and windows in the house that had previously been covered over. The collaboration of workshop e and Salmond Reed Architects has resulted in touching the rooms lightly leaving only a residential scale, furniture-based installation using sophisticated touchscreen digital display cases to enhance the visitor experience in a room setting from the 1800s.
Sometimes our role is to advise others on how to work their inspired design intentions in with existing building fabric. Less is more when it comes to modification or removal of old building elements and simplicity of design often wins the day over complicated detailing. We look, ultimately, for design clarity particularly when juxtaposing the old with the new.
