Summerhill Charitable Trust trustee Gabrielle Walton and builder Charlie Cruickshank who were both heavily involved in the project. Photo / Nadine Bailey
Summerhill Charitable Trust trustee Gabrielle Walton and builder Charlie Cruickshank who were both heavily involved in the project. Photo / Nadine Bailey
A new “community base” is set to open in Pāpāmoa, marking a “huge step forward” for the Summerhill Charitable Trust.
Summerhill is a working sheep, cattle, and forestry farm in Pāpāmoa owned by the trust.
Its mission is to “serve the community” with its land and forest for recreational and educational purposes.
The 100sq m facility - which can be booked by anyone including schools, kindergartens, tertiary, recreational, youth, and corporate groups - will be open to the public from tomorrow.
It was designed by University of Auckland architecture student Leith Macfarlane, who said it was a “phenomenal opportunity“ to gain ”first-hand experience from design to build".
The original wool shed and new community base are brought together by a wrap-around deck and central utility block that brings the roof lines of the buildings together. Photo / Bryn Macfarlane
‘Absolutely thrilled’
Summerhill Charitable Trust trustee Gabrielle Walton told the Bay of Plenty Times the trust had a 60-year-old woolshed next door to the new “community base”.
“We had been using that a little bit, but it’s really not fit for purpose. And we need it for farm use and we’re getting more and more event use.”
Walton said the woolshed was “very cold and draughty”.
She said the trust had an “ongoing” relationship with the University of Auckland’s architecture school. Masters students had designed structures around the farm and the university had helped it build a forest shelter.
Students submitted designs to the trust for the project.
Spectators sitting outside the new Summerhill community base watching the recent North Island secondary schools mountain bike championships. Photo / Nadine Bailey
Walton said the trust liked Macfarlane’s simple, functional and elegant design.
“It worked really well alongside the old existing woolshed that we still need and use.”
Walton said wool and timber from the farm was used for the build.
She said the trust was “absolutely thrilled” with the final build, which would also be used for mountain biking and running events.
The interior of the community base showcasing the 'tuck shop' wall with pop-out windows, cross-braced wool-stuffed walls and Cypress and Vic Ash timber grown and milled on site by Summerhill Timbers. Photo / Nadine Bailey
“It’s huge - it’s something we, I suppose, have dreamt about for a long time.
“This is such a growing peri urban area, and we have so many more people visiting us these days, mainly for recreation but also education ... to be able to give them a covered, dry, clean, exciting facility made from our own products, it’s a huge step forward for us.
“It just reinforces what we’re here for which is to serve the community with our land and our forests.”
Designing the community base
Macfarlane said she did a design paper in her third year of her bachelor’s degree in 2022.
With the help and guidance of University of Auckland professional teaching fellow Matt Liggins, Macfarlane said she developed the design and oversaw the build which started mid-last year.
She said four design principles were adopted - retaining the trust’s heritage and reimagining traditional woolshed elements, exhibiting locally grown Summerhill timber, catering to a wide variety of functions and groups, and accessibility and warmth.
Leith Macfarlane, who designed the community base as part of a design paper during her Bachelors of Architecture at the University of Auckland, on site at the original wool shed. Photo / Matt Liggins
Macfarlane said the design features included large, cross-braced cassette walls which were “stuffed with wool” - some of which was from sheep shorn “next door”.
The kitchen reinterpreted the shearing stage in the original shed and took influence from “traditional” Kiwi tuck shops, with half swing doors and pop out windows.
‘Generous’ contributions
Trust administrator Nadine Bailey said nearly two-thirds of the construction and fit-out costs were contributed through grant funding, sponsorship and donations from local organisations.
“The build would not have been possible without the generous support of many, with special thanks to TECT for their contribution of over $300,000.”
Bailey said the trust’s founders Cloie and David Blackley, Grassroots Trust, The Lion Foundation, Lottery Grants Fund, Western Bay of Plenty District Council, Summerhill Timbers, One Foundation, PGG Wrightson and Legacy Funerals also gave “generous” contributions.
Megan Wilson is a health and general news reporter for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has been a journalist since 2021.
