The site of Mataukareao is located along a busy and active road of Dunedin’s inner city. Directly in front of the site is a main bus hub running along the road frontage, and immediately adjacent is a large department store which shares part of the site for loading goods and deliveries. The site is located one block from the new hospital precinct, and there is also a variety of other retail outlets, a supermarket and a police station nearby. The site was previously used as an external public car park.

The brief for the site was to explore a combination of commercial fitout / office space and maintain sufficient on-site carparking for both public and private use. The northern part of the site needed to provide access to the adjacent department store loading dock, forming a key driver in the planning of the site. The brief also called for maximising the full use of the site up to the surrounding boundaries.

The result is a six-level building, of which the bottom two levels are carparking with a centralised vehicle ramp. The four levels above are open office / leasable fitout spaces which are accessed via two separate stair and lift cores located at opposing ends of the building. The primary tenant for the building is Pacific Radiology, whom occupy the top floor and half of the floor below. There is a dedicated ambulance bay and bed-lift for access to the top floors.

Brick was selected for the base of the building, wrapping around the carpark levels and helping to anchor and contrast with the lighter and sharper materiality of the high-tech inhabitable spaces above. The brick is recycled from demolished old buildings around Dunedin, a gesture to the materials often seen in the local vernacular. The tactile materiality of the brick and recycled timber was also chosen for the street frontage canopy, with the interaction with the bus hub.

The eastern street-facing façade is a large curtain wall system with alternating segments of solid and glass. This was designed to provide a balance of light and solidity catered for medically oriented fitouts. Given that the majority of the western and southern facades of the building are against boundaries with fire engineering constraints, it was important to maximise the opportunity for bringing in light to a deep floor plate where possible.

The name Mataukareao was gifted to the building – recognising the history of the site’s area as a landing place for waka at the bottom of present-day Hanover Street. Kareao is a supplejack, and Matau is a hook, and the area was named Mataukareao. The brief included incorporating designs produced by artist Morgan Mathews-Hale of Kaitiaki Studios into external elements of the building. The precast concrete and perforated screen along the frontage to the bus hub includes designs featuring Mataukareao landscapes and waterways.