Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre

In 2012, a Christchurch Central Recovery Plan was developed with a vision to reinvigorate Christchurch and bring more people back to the area, further encouraging greater investment and economic growth. The Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre is a part of this changing landscape and will be a catalyst for further development of the city centre.

The redevelopment of the Christchurch city centre shows that disaster and opportunity can lie close together and success in central Christchurch depends on everyone working together under a shared vision.

The Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre is one of the Christchurch Central Recovery Plan’s anchor projects and will provide a much-needed convention and conference destination for New Zealand. The Architecturally unique design was inspired by the natural landscape of Canterbury with architecture that is reminiscent of the local rivers and mountains and will attract internationally renowned conferences. The boutique style building has flexibility and adaptability built in with the ability to hold up to 2,000 guests, allowing it to host a range of events, everything from business conventions to diplomatic conferences. The Centre has been carefully designed with national and international objectives in mind and will include a 1,400 auditorium, a 3,600m2 exhibition hall and 1,600m2 of meeting rooms overlooking Victoria Square.

Te Pae will link to an expanded performing arts precinct, and is close to hospitality and retail sectors in the inner city.

Te Pae is expected to open in 2020.

Our approach

The WSP team includes our local Christchurch Engineers working together with our Australian Convention Centre specialists in Melbourne, Victoria. Our Melbourne and New Zealand teams, led by Graeme Smith, Building Services Manager in Christchurch undertook preliminary design works for the development on a 2 year timeframe prior to being engaged to deliver the 28,000 square metre centre.

Our Technology Systems team, managed by Roneel Singh are designing a technically complex integrated technology system that includes converged communications systems, broadcast infrastructure, ICT systems and audio-visual systems.

In addition, we are providing life cycle impact assessments, have issued preliminary advice and are committed to a programme of post occupancy tuning to optimise system performance.

Booth exhibition hall

200 200

Meeting rooms

24 24

Seat auditorium

1400 1400

The delivery platform is BIM/Revit

Christchurch Convention and Exhibition Centre is an example of best practice in international collaboration between New Zealand and Australian design teams, both within WSP and for the project architects, Woods Bagot.

Our teams have worked through several options for the CCEC to produce the best possible outcome from a design perspective – a design that was technology driven, highly adaptable and sustainable.