Te Pae Christchurch Convention Center | Christchurch, New Zealand | 2022
Architects: Woods Bagot
Lead Architect: Bruno Mendes
Associate Architects: Warren and Mahoney Architects New Zealand Pty.
Landscape Architects: Kamo Marsh Landscape Architects
General Contractor: CPB Contractors Pty Limited
Client: Rua Paenga Limited (Formerly Ōtākaro Limited)
Photographers: Lightforge
Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre is a monolithic spectacle of civic architecture, contributing to the physical and psychic repair and rebuild of Christchurch city in the devastating wake of the 2011 earthquake. When a 6.3-magnitude quake hit the South Island’s largest city, it caused extensive damage to buildings and infrastructure, claiming the former convention center, and with it, the lives of 185 Christchurch residents. Emerging from the disaster, the local government prepared the Christchurch Central Recovery Plan, initiating the conception of a series of “anchor” projects designed to bring the city back to life – among them, the new Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre.
Four years in the making, the 28,000-squre-metre Te Pae was completed in 2022, designed by Woods Bagot’s Melbourne studio with New Zealand practice Warren and Mahoney. The architectural language of the centre reflects both Ngāi Tahu (the principal iwi, or tribe, of the South Island) and Pākehā (European) histories, engaging in a storied and sensitive response to place and people. The fluid façade is made from nearly 43,000 tiles in an ornate herringbone arrangement, each individually numbered and placed, whose varied tones and textures are inspired by the rich palette of the natural landscape.
The detailed tile configuration is intended to evoke the unique braided rivers – a rare geographical feature endemic to the Canterbury Plains – creating a visual language that defines the building entryways and frames its outlooks, oriented to face over Ōtākaro / Avon River. In form, the building’s undulating silhouette echoes the formation of the nearby Southern Alps, and sinuous glazed windows ribbon the building facade, referencing the meandering river systems. “Whakapapa” in Te Reo Māori translates to “ancestry” or “descent”, used to refer to identity and connection to place.
Whakapapa was one of the key tenets informing the design, the ancestral bones of the Ngāi Tahu people buried in the grounds beneath the precinct. In consultation with the Matapopore Charitable Trust, Te Pae seeks to restore the voice of a people to the urban fabric of Ōtautahi / Christchurch, referencing Māori history in an architecture previously only defined by its neo-gothic and colonial origins. Woods Bagot eschews the “big box” typology of traditional conference and convention centres, using a contoured profile that is smaller in scale, while still comprising a 1,400-seat auditorium, a 3,600 sqm exhibition hall, and 1,600 sqm of meeting rooms.
Today, Te Pae offers a cultural meeting place, a social landmark, and a purpose-built arts and events hub, stitching itself seamlessly into the wider city fabric. The centre’s rebirth is gradually helping to repair and remedy the collective trauma of a visibly depleted city, restoring a sense of vibrancy, optimism and future to Christchurch’s civic life. Te Pae achieves a 5-Star Green Star design rating and Toitū enviromark gold certification.