Growing demand creates more space

Auckland University’s Faculty of Engineering is set for a multi-million dollar redevelopment, including new hightech laboratories, the creation of a new engineering research facility and the expansion of existing buildings The upgrade is estimated to cost $216 million and will take four years to complete.

As part of the redevelopment engineering buildings 403 and 404 at 20 Symonds Street will be completely refurbished and extended by several floors creating 5,000 m2 more useable space. This will allow the Departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and Engineering Science to relocate back to 20 Symonds Street and free up space for the Faculty of Science, where ECE is currently located.

The Ray Meyer Building at the Tamaki Innovation Campus is also being refurbished, and adjacent to it a new engineering research facility is to be built - providing an additional 5,000 m2 of space for large scale research projects.

Faculty of Engineering Dean Professor Michael Davies says the redevelopment will transform the faculty’s teaching and research facilities and benefit the entire University.

“The building programme will bring two departments back to the heart of the faculty and create state-of-the-art teaching and learning spaces as well as providing facilities for research that are of an internationally leading standard.

“All of this will be within an environment that has been designed to encourage interactions between students and staff from different disciplines. This will strengthen the collegiality that has always been a strong feature of the faculty and encourage interdisciplinary research,” says Professor Davies.

The Council’s approval recognises that the faculty has grown substantially since its current buildings were constructed, mainly in the late 1960s, and that many of the current facilities are outdated and inadequate, he says.

“It also recognises that there is continuing strong demand for engineering graduates and that the faculty has been very successful in growing its postgraduate numbers and external research income, particularly in recent years,” says Professor Davies.