The exterior of the new Wai-ora building.
After nearly four years growing near the banks of the Ōtākaro - Avon River, Wai-Ora, the University of Otago - Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka’s new home for its Ōtautahi/ Christchurch tauira and toihurarewa is nearing completion.
The University established a campus in Ōtautahi in 1973, its first campus outside Dunedin.
Early plans for Wai-Ora started prior to the Christchurch earthquakes. Visionary and Dean of the Christchurch campus at the time, Professor Peter Joyce, foresaw the benefits of consolidating Otago’s Christchurch campus, which, over time had spread across multiple buildings.
When a site came up for sale following the earthquakes close to the current hospital-based campus, Professor Joyce seized the opportunity to lead its purchase. Unknown at the time, fortuitously the new site would also be located in the city’s future Te Papa Hauora Health Precinct.
Construction of the eight-story building, led by Christchurch company Leighs, began onsite in mid-2022. The project has required complex excavation, de-watering and structural works due to the building’s tight inner-city location.
Its name Wai-Ora (water of life) – because water feeds life – was gifted from Ngāi Tūāhuriri. In the context of Otago’s Christchurch medical campus, the building’s external design reflects the integral role of the environment for health and wellbeing.
Professor Suzanne Pitama
Faculty of Medicine Head Professor Suzanne Pitama says the new building will expand the University’s ability to undertake world-class research and clinical trials across a wide range of health challenges, from diabetes to Parkinson’s disease.
“Wai-Ora has been designed to bring researchers, clinicians, educators and students together in a way that strengthens the pathway from discovery to patient care. By expanding our clinical trial capacity, we can offer communities greater access to emerging technologies, treatments, therapies and medicines that may not otherwise be available in New Zealand.
“We look forward to building on the many relationships we have with industry, community and clinicians as we deliver world leading research in a world class facility.”
With staff currently spread across eleven buildings, Wai-Ora will consolidate the Christchurch campus workforce. It will welcome a range of tauira including medical students completing the clinical years of their undergraduate degree, final-year physiotherapy students, and will be a hub for nursing and health science postgraduate students. Clinicians working closely with the hospital will remain based in the existing University building, which is conected to the hospital.
The new building will allow the Ōtautahi campus to grow, increasing teaching spaces by 20 per cent, accommodating more postgraduate health students and students from other University courses as well.
“The cultural narrative that weaves through the building’s design features, embodies this kaupapa of whakapapa, hauora, and interconnectedness. At the entrance, pouwhenua (adorned posts) feature haehae patterns symbolising waterways like the adjacent Otākaro River. The paved entrance leading into Wai-Ora features taniko patterns and transitions from dark to light grey, mirroring the riverbanks and the transition from darkness (Te Pō) to light (Te Ao Mārama),” Professor Pitama says.
Official opening ceremonies are due to take place on Thursday 17 and Friday 18 September.