Location: Waitakere, New Zealand
Project: Waiatarau – Waitakere’s New
Acute Mental Health Inpatient Unit.
Architect: Maunsell Limited ‘Matt Fleming’
VELUX products: 28 x VSE Electric
Opening Skylights, 23 x FCM Fixed Low
Pitch Skylights
The care and protection of those at risk in our community brings its own challenges and boundaries. Covering an area of almost 3000 square metres, the 40 bed acute mental health inpatient unit in Waitakere had to meet a range of requirements including provision of safe space for acute patients, and for those needing a higher level of care, without appearing to be a fortress. “We wanted a domestic rather than institutional appearance to it,” says Architect Matt Fleming of Maunsell. “But it still had significant robust requirements to it.”
Location: Waitakere, New Zealand
Project: Waiatarau – Waitakere’s New
Acute Mental Health Inpatient Unit.
Architect: Maunsell Limited ‘Matt Fleming’
VELUX products: 28 x VSE Electric
Opening Skylights, 23 x FCM Fixed Low
Pitch Skylights
The care and protection of those at risk in our community brings its own challenges and boundaries. Covering an area of almost 3000 square metres, the 40 bed acute mental health inpatient unit in Waitakere had to meet a range of requirements including provision of safe space for acute patients, and for those needing a higher level of care, without appearing to be a fortress. “We wanted a domestic rather than institutional appearance to it,” says Architect Matt Fleming of Maunsell. “But it still had significant robust requirements to it.”
The healing properties of natural light are well recognized and this led Maunsell to their use of VELUX Skylights throughout the building. “There are quite a few deep plan spaces and long corridors so we used VELUX Skylights to reduce corridor length by bringing light into the centre to eliminate the tunnel effect,” explains Matt. Natural light is a principle of design in many of Maunsell’s mental health projects. VELUX Skylights were used over meeting rooms and offices placed deep in the plan to bring natural light over the work and administration areas. “This delivers well being for both service users and staff,” says Fleming. For architectural effect VELUX Skylights were used in banks of four in bed wings and in southern service areas.
“Opening Skylights allow us to control temperature and environment more acutely.
A lot of large buildings have delays on the way heating and cooling systems operate, while VELUX Opening Skylights allow rapid response via the building management system allowing the client to manage their heat load in the building, naturally.”
VSE Electric Opening Skylights
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