Albany Primary School's transformation into a complete, future-ready campus is a project close to our hearts, and one that tells a broader story about what's possible when experience, relationships, and purpose come together.

Watts & Hughes has been part of this school's journey from the beginning. The two-storey, 20-Teaching Space building completed in June 2024, which replaced an aging block found to be in poor condition, was delivered by our team and set the foundation for what was to follow. Stage 3, the hall replacement, continued that partnership: another Design & Build contract, another opportunity to get it right.

And get it right we did. The design our team developed, in collaboration with our trusted design partners, has since been adopted by the Ministry of Education into its Repeatable Design Catalogue 2025, where it now stands as the reference type for school hall and multipurpose spaces across New Zealand. This is no small recognition. It reflects the depth of experience and the established relationships our design team has cultivated with the Ministry over many years, relationships that not only inform better design outcomes but enable an accelerated design programme that keeps projects moving and schools from waiting.

The building itself is a practical, enduring solution: a single-storey hall with kitchen, toilets, and store rooms, built on a concrete pad with a structural steel frame and metal cladding. Its delivery fulfils Albany Primary's build roll entitlement, ensuring the school has the space its growing community needs.

Delivered within a live school environment, with a temporary walkway constructed along the field boundary to keep students and staff safe throughout construction, the project is another example of Watts & Hughes doing what we do best: delivering for the people who matter most.

We're proud to play a part in shaping the spaces where the next generation learns, grows, and thrives. Albany Primary is another chapter in that ongoing story, and one we're genuinely proud to have written.