S&T have been engaged by the Ministry of Education to provide lead design services for the redevelopment of Karori Normal School (KNS) located in Wellington. The project initially started as a rationalisation project with KNS identified as having surplus Ministry of Education spatial allocation but a deficit in two teaching spaces. Several of the school's buildings were also affected by weathertightness issues, primarily due to their age and degradation.

Early engagement with the school highlighted that this project would go well beyond a simple rationalisation of leaky buildings. The school and wider community shared a clear vision for a new, inclusive educational environment that supports diverse and multicultural learning needs. This led to a comprehensive masterplanning process, which included both educational building design and landscape architecture solutions.

With the school currently lacking a formal entrance, the design of the new building and landscape elements focused on creating a welcoming arrival space—a place to ‘meet and greet’ students, whānau, and the wider community, and to gather for pōwhiri. A new two-storey school building houses eight modern teaching spaces and is strategically located along Donald Street. This positioning defines the school’s street edge while enclosing a central courtyard, enhancing the learning and play environment for students. The building's textural yet refined façade creates a visual and physical connection with the community while providing a sense of shelter and security for the tamariki.

The building also establishes a new 5-metre-wide ramped formal entrance to the school grounds. This entry will be framed by custom-designed timber pou, to be developed collaboratively by local iwi and/or the school’s tamariki, embedding cultural narratives into the school’s architecture and landscape.

Karori—the Wellington suburb—retains its original meaning: the place from which the birds come. KNS already uses forest and bird metaphors within its pedagogy and building names. This inspired the design team to approach the school redevelopment through the architectural metaphor of a forest—a concept that strongly reflects both the physical and cultural environment.

The design for the new eight-space teaching block draws on the idea of tree shyness, with the building envelope acting as a folded tree canopy—a protective, light-filtering screen providing shade and shelter. The vertical floor-to-ceiling windows are thoughtfully spaced to reinforce this concept, while also enabling the wider community to see and connect with the tamariki (birds) learning within. Vertical glulam-framed translucent screens at the edge of a covered deck represent the forest floor, while internal finishes reflect the local flora and fauna, embedding a sense of place and identity.

The combination of new and refurbished teaching spaces, along with the sustainable and culturally responsive landscape design, has been warmly received by the KNS community. The project now supports Karori Normal School in proudly standing as a true ‘School of Aotearoa’—a benchmark for educational architecture in New Zealand.