Goodman’s new “The Gate” warehouse in Auckland, New Zealand, was designed primarily as a storage facility, but its flexible layout maintains opportunities for future tenancies.

The 4,530sqm portal framed warehouse has two storey office and amenities block attached. Visitors are welcomed through an aesthetically pleasing street-facing façade, with glazing at street level that opens up sightlines and breaks down the largeness of the facility.

Its simple architectural form portrays a sense of functionality, and has been designed on the “long life, loose fit” philosophy, with regular grids to allow flexibility.

Materials were chosen for their longevity, cost efficiency, and ease of installation. The warehouse is clad in pre-cast concrete panels, and coloursteel cladding finished in Goodman’s colour scheme, and a reinforced concrete slab provides a low-maintenance, joint-free floor. The office is clad in compressed fibre cement sheet with expressed joints, and has a commercial aluminium window system, and aluminium louvres for solar control.

Profiled plastic skylights make up 15% of the warehouse roof area, maximising light but minimising solar heat gain, and LED lighting in zones enables daylight harvesting. In the offices, LED lighting requires limited maintenance and has occupancy sensing in amenities and meeting rooms. Temperature sensors are provided in each thermal zone, for accurate air-condition regulation and energy saving.

Electrical distribution boards within the warehouse allow for efficiency and flexibility, ensuring maintenance can be carried out easily. All areas have separate distribution boards and metering, to enable future sub-tenanting if required.

Careful consideration is given to the building’s appearance from Church Street. The front of the site includes attractive landscaping, and the yard is screened by being set back and below road level.