Consular Office of Japan in Christchurch

After the Christchurch earthquakes, the Japanese Consulate had to move to temporary premises and started considering their long-term options.  The decision was made to build a new building in Hereford Street Christchurch.  The brief came from Japan and was very prescriptive and dominated by onerous non-negotiable security requirements.  For example, the building had to be constructed from thick concrete, no windows were allowed on the ground floor, and any windows on the upper floors had to be small, bomb-proof and covered in steel bars or screens.

As the brief was for an extremely secure building with fixed requirements from the Japanese Government, we were limited in terms of some architectural decisions and approaches.

The design approach was to accept this unavoidable fortress-like requirement and express this. The architectural expression was to take real care in the details, material finish and proportions as in typical Japanese design while accepting the simplicity of the form.  As an example, we worked with Matapopore and the artist Morgan Matthews-Hale to express the intertwining of the two cultures in the Corten metal screens over the windows depicting a Kowhai flower and Cherry blossom.  We used the small opportunities afforded by the demanding brief to give the building character and speak of its place straddling Japan and New Zealand.