Nur Azfahani Ahmad, PhD: Buildings in Auckland City

BRITOMART TRANSPORT CENTRE, AUCKLAND CITY, NEW ZEALAND

This is my 1st Edition on beautiful state-of-the-art buildings in Auckland City that really catch my eyes.

I learn to know that the history of Britomart began over decades ago, where this area has transformed tremendously over hundreds of years, which consists of many history of the land and reflected on how Kiwi got the name of 'Britomart'.

The Britomart area was originally part of the Waitemata Harbour and located at the seashore of Commercial Bay. The location of this building is between Britomart Point, Britomart Place and the Hobson Street ridge. To know more information on this history, kindly visit this website http://www.britomart.co.nz/history1.html

Map below show the location of Britomart, in the heart of Auckland city

Map sources from: http://www.lotolux.com/NZ/Auckland.html (edited by Pani)

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Britomart is the largest infrastructure project ever undertaken by a local authority in NZ. The purposes for Britomart is a transport centre linking train, bus and ferry services and is an important strategy in developing Auckland's $1.2 billion passenger transport network. Britomart is also an urban renewal project that preserves adjoining heritage buildings and creates a low-level heritage precinct with new public spaces (http://www.scribd.com/doc/7427236/Britomart-Transport-Center).

What I fond the most is the minimalist glass building design of this center.The building itself is a very vast glass sculpture which towering at the middle of a very large area and give a unique statement within its contemporary surroundings. It’s hard to tell where the best views are seen from this contemporary-modern building.

This award winning design building portrays a futuristic structure which made from louvred glass panels that drench it with natural lighting system. Thus, its optimizes natural sunlight entry from outside into this building in order to minimize the need for an artificial lighting. What a great mechanism for energy-efficiency purposes! Plus, Auckland's weather is of course more comfortable and cool compared to Malaysia, thus heat island problem is very minimal for this city. Whilst, outside, an outdoor terrace borders the pedestrian area, presenting panoramic view of Auckland beautiful and bright skyline.