Description:

The Youth Hub is Aotearoa New Zealand’s first purpose-built facility combining transitional housing with a range of youth services, designed to transform health and wellbeing outcomes for tamariki and rangatahi.
One in every five young New Zealanders are struggling and require support from time to time, while one in 10 face severe adversity in many aspects of their lives including health, education, employment and housing. To exacerbate this, Christchurch’s young people have had to endure the 2010-11 earthquakes, 2019 mosque shootings and the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. These events are hard on all young people but are often crippling for those already suffering adversity.

Youth Hub Christchurch breaks this cycle of adversity by being the turning point in the lives of young people aged 10-25. It acts as a communal place of growth and wellbeing and gives opportunities to those who need a chance to prove themselves as contributing citizens of our city and country.

The hub connects socially supportive organisations under one roof to deliver a holistic one-stop model of wrap-around services including: mental health, medical, education, employment and training, transitional housing, recreation, creativity, and social entrepreneurship. Importantly, it does this in a youth-centric and accessible environment where young people feel accepted and supported as they develop into adults with respect to their ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation and gender.

The design approach is genuinely youth centric in its origins, design process and outcomes - embedding an on-going co-design process to match the purpose and values of the organisations that work with youth. Design has been applied to understanding the funding and development model for this unique complex, using a phased design and planning process to match a staged funding process which supports the subsequent design and development phases. This also extends to designers working with materials and suppliers to build the trust and support necessary to help make the project happen. Design elements work really hard at the Youth Hub, to make the most of the opportunities and resources available - synchronising multiple functionalities to optimising efficient design for environmental and operational sustainability. Ultimately, the Youth Hub is a warm and friendly environment that resonates with what young people told us they wanted.

The Youth Hub Christchurch represents a hopeful vision of how architecture and design can play a vital role in serving communities. Delivering high-quality, thoughtful spaces has a huge impact and wide reach in community-driven initiatives. The Youth Hub provides an opportunity for designers and construction industry professionals to serve and empower young people. Exemplifying the need for spaces that redefine institutional architecture through a community-led approach.

“It is exciting to have a facility that has been designed with the future of our young people in mind. It will not only provide immediate support in the health and housing space, it will also nurture education, recreation, and cultural development. It is setting our rangatahi up for long-term success.”
Leighton Evans, Rātā Foundation Chief Executive