Property strategy
2020 Campus Master Plan—A vision to 2030 is the University's property strategy to support the 2020–2024 Strategic Plan.
Our properties now
The University operates across three main campuses in New Zealand’s capital city and several smaller sites, including office space in central Auckland. The University has a gross floor area of around 215,000 square meters across more than 160 buildings, excluding student accommodation. Our smallest building is a 20 square meters cabin and our largest building is Rutherford House, which is 21,000 square meters.
Our place in Wellington—this city is our campus
Our place in Wellington city as part of its landscape, community, and culture will continue to grow. Wellington city is fast becoming our campus. Our vision to 2030 will expand our presence in Wellington and beyond.
Our campuses anchor our research, learning, and teaching. Our three central campuses and many smaller sites give our staff and students unrivalled access to:
- the creative sectors
- the quarters of business, law, and government
- industries, organisations, and iwi.
Over the next 10 years we will revitalise our campuses to create inclusive collaborative environments that reflect the diversity of our community and of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Historically, we are closely involved with the social, cultural, and economic life of Wellington. As we grow, we will bring this civic focus into a global context and contribute to New Zealand, the Asia–Pacific region, and the world.
Places and spaces for thriving communities
We are a global–civic university with our marae at our heart. Our learning, teaching, and research environments will be collegial, highly creative, and accessible. Our staff and students will have working environments that are innovative, flexible, and collaborative.
A Living Pā for the future
Te Tumu Herenga Waka, our fully carved wharenui, ties us to our ancestors and all the iwi of Aotearoa. We will redevelop the five villas in front of our wharenui into a Living Pā.
The Living Pā will be a regenerative new build that transforms the way we realise our culture and values by drawing together mātauranga Māori and sustainability practices. This redevelopment proposes to meet one of the most rigorous standards to measure built environments—the Living Building Challenge. As an incubator for innovation, the Living Pā will be a place to come together to teach, learn, research, and engage.
Student-focused learning and teaching spaces
Students and staff will enjoy a mix of formal, informal, individual, and community learning spaces. Formal spaces for teaching will cluster around central hubs near student services, the Library, retail, food outlets, and community spaces to create a holistic university experience.
Improving access to our quality research facilities
Our research spaces vary from highly specialised laboratories to technology-enabled workspaces. We will work closely with our research community to ensure that high quality research space is available when needed.
Developing postgraduate hubs for students
Our postgraduate research students will have a range of communal work areas, quiet rooms, and social spaces. These flexible working environments will be inclusive, providing opportunities to connect with other students or for quiet, focused work.
Creating flexible and contemporary working environments for staff
Our people are integral to the University. Working environments will be innovative, contemporary and flexible. We will learn from our working-from-home experience during the COVID-19 lockdown. There may be opportunities to improve productivity and wellbeing that, in turn, free up space on our campuses.
Expanding our prominence in Wellington city
Our physical precincts will have high profile and be integrated within key locations to support our interdependent relationship with Wellington city.
A city front door for our main campus
The Kelburn campus is the nucleus of our university and home to most of our schools and faculties—it’s where the majority of students start their university experience.
Te Huanui, our proposed redevelopment of 320 The Terrace, will be the University’s ‘front door’ to the city, where world-class teaching and research facilities are surrounded by lively civic spaces. This significant redevelopment will include a pedestrian connection for easy access between the city and upper Kelburn campus.
Positioning for political influence
The Pipitea campus has a strong position in the Wellington quarters of business, law, and government. Our students and staff benefit from easy access to New Zealand’s Parliament, judiciary, and public and private sectors.
Growing our creative presence
Our Te Aro campus for architecture and design innovation thrives in the hubbub of the city’s creative centre. We will look for opportunities to expand this campus.
The Miramar Creative Centre already offers unrivalled access to work experience and professional connections with New Zealand’s world-leading film, animation, and game design industries. The Centre sits among the Weta Group buildings.
Digital spaces to connect with the world
We will offer a blended delivery of courses between online and on-campus learning. Our campuses will remain an anchor for our learning and research communities and our digital platforms will connect us globally so we can learn, teach, and research wherever we are.
Campuses to enrich student and staff experiences
Our staff and students will feel a sense of belonging to a vibrant, inclusive University and civic community that is anchored to our campuses.
A holistic student experience that is second-to-none
Student-facing services will be easy to find. Our world-leading academic library service will be complemented by comfortable and contemporary spaces that promote learning. In the long term, we will create a new Recreation and Wellness Centre that encompasses all of our recreational needs.
Vibrant retail outlets with diverse choices
We will increase the range of vibrant, affordable, and convenient retail outlets, offering diverse choices. The range of choices, opening hours, and locations will provide opportunities for social interaction. For example, the major courtyards outside Hunter, Kirk, Student Union Plaza, and Te Toki a Rata provide opportunities for different outlets to enliven our outdoor spaces.
Green spaces for a new urban landscape
We will create a range of unique outdoor spaces to enjoy on any day, including plazas, courtyards, and green spaces. We will create ‘green’ walls and roofs to enrich our city’s biodiversity, with easy access for our communities. Our staff and students will have opportunities to become involved in community gardens and annual tree-planting in the Town Belt.
Our heritage as part of Wellington will remain constant
Distinctive and memorable high-quality spaces will reinforce perceptions of our unique identity.
A heritage worth protecting
Over the next 10 years, we will restore and maintain the Hunter building—our oldest building dating from 1906. We will also focus on resilience of our built environment—for each of our major buildings we will develop 5‑year plans for remedial and renewal works.
Spaces that exhibit our identity and community
Our precincts will be memorable, integral, and attractive places that create a sense of intellectual vibrancy and community, and that help attract and retain the best students, researchers, and staff.
Striving for a sustainable future
We will continue to refurbish our campuses to achieve our net-zero carbon goals. We will continue improving the seismic resilience of our buildings. Sustainability will be key in our current and future projects, as we apply what we learn from our teaching and research.
Our spaces will be built and used efficiently to minimise our impact on the environment
We are researching the impact of climate change on our buildings and our students to see how we can make our buildings and energy generation more resilient and more sustainable. We’ve made great progress since 2007, but we still need to do lots of work to reach our goal of net-zero carbon.
- Generate renewable energy on campus.
- Reduce carbon-based heating.
- Install energy-efficient equipment and technology in new and existing buildings.
- Improve our facilities to encourage our staff and students to use more sustainable transport and reduce the number of carparks we need.
- Increase the number of recycling options available.
- Minimise the waste our activities produce (particularly construction).
- Conserve water by upgrading our buildings and equipment.