Ranfurly House & Retirement Village

31 Dec

An ensemble of new and existing, Ranfurly Village situated in Mt Albert comprises the adaptive reuse of Ranfurly House—a listed historic building and a retirement village of 170 apartments.

Following the end of the Second Anglo-Boer War, the Governor of New Zealand, the Earl of Ranfurly, proposed the construction of a home and hospital for veterans who had fought for the British Empire. A listed heritage building, Ranfurly House, was completed in 1903.

The Ranfurly Trust partnered with Generus Living Group to redevelop the site, including Ranfurly House and working with existing buildings constructed in the early 2000s that required extensive maintenance and refurbishment. ASC Architects led the consultant team and collaborated with Sumich Chaplain Architects to design the new village. Ranfurly Village comprises the adaptive reuse of Ranfurly House as the village hub and the new 60-bed hospital and complex of six new apartment buildings consisting of 193 dwellings and basement parking. Generous landscaped outdoor spaces encourage resident interactions and greater mobility with secure access linkage across all facilities and floor levels.

Location
Auckland

Datecompleted
2019

Client
Ranfurly House

Team
Neil Cotton, Vaughan Shepherd

Photography
Simon Devitt, Mark Scowen

More significant works included the $8.5 million hospital building, completed in 2013. Built across three levels, the building consists of two upper floors of accommodation, providing 15 bedrooms and ensuites with central support and amenity spaces including nurse stations, hinging the four wings and ground floor, accommodating a commercial kitchen, laundry, staff room, administration offices and storage.

Four of the proposed apartment buildings are complete, the remaining two, now under construction. These buildings also include an indoor pool, gym and games room atop a basement parking structure. Working with the character of the Ranfurly House and proportions of the heritage fabric, this project offers an example of ways to adaptively repurpose, achieving sympathetic restoration of an old form for new uses.