One Willis Street

The AON Centre at One Willis Street is the very definition of a landmark. Sitting an equal distance between the the serious seats of Government and the cultural delights of Cuba Street, it is very much a building to orienteer yourself by, and has been since it was built in 1994. The recent refurbishment was always destined to be highly scrutinised, with tens of thousands of eyeballs gazing upon the development daily.

Project: One Willis Street

End User: Precinct Properties

Architect: Tennent Brown Architects

Mechanical Design: Ventuer

Main Contractor: LT McGuinness

Installation Partner: Insol

Products Supplied: VL-50CM screening louvres and VL-VF2 vertical weather louvres

Project Details

The overall aesthetic of the building is focused and clean. In a location where business meets casual elegance, the building plays a leading role in setting the tone for one of Wellington’s busiest locations. Doing so calls for a high attention to detail, at the juncture of where complexity and simplicity meet, the clean exterior hiding the intricate workings of the interior. And hiding that interior is precisely what the architect had in mind when it came to the building’s plant rooms.

The intent was to establish a frameless look that would be both modern and elegant, as hiding the inner workings with louvres would not be enough on its own. Those little details that establish the overall sense of a building had to be there too, the design asking the ventilation to be functional and seemingly disappear from conscious sight, while also making a positive visual contribution. Those two things might seem at odds with each other. Yet, it is possible.

Critical to achieving the intent was the departure from a traditional framed module. Clip-fixed blades were preferred and would offer a much cleaner visual and the desired frameless appearance. The external plant was wrapped in black powder coated Ventuer VL-VF2 Louvres. Virtually impenetrable with near 100% rain defence even in extreme conditions, the two-stage weather louvres are perfect for a city famed for the type of wind driven rain that will seemingly find a way through everything. Except the VL-VF2 anyway.

The nearby enclosed plant room was to effectively disappear from sight, concealed by the Ventuer VL-50CM minimalistic screening louvres. Acting as a visual screen and weather louvre to supply and exhaust ducts, they allow for a maximum airflow while stopping rain from penetrating the structure. Finished in the same black powder coating, it’s actually difficult to even see what the louvres are for functionally, and to the layman’s eye they generally appear as a design feature only.

Now complete, it’s perhaps a little ironic that the Ventuer louvres look so good that you don’t see them. They do their job without detracting from the glistening, towering skyscraper they are part of by hiding in plain sight. At the same time, there is the undeniable fact they add to the sense of the building/ They are both there and not there, an unsung hero of sorts in downtown Wellington. At least, that’s what we think.