KiwiRail EMU Maintainance Depot (with Beca)

Contracted directly to Beca, Melling Architect's David Melling led Beca's architectural team on this project from an early feasability and planning stage through to construction works on site. Located adjacent to Kiwirails's existing depot, the new maintenance depot was required in order to maintain Kiwirail's new fleet of EMU passenger vehicles named Matangi (a total of 92 new cars being introduced between 2010 and 2012). The 5,000 m2 depot includes a 5-road maintenance floor and facilities for 50 staff as well as a separate wheel lathe and carriage servicing buildings. Conceived of as a large box tilted on a 3 degree angle and clad in random-width strips of multi-coloured profiled steel and transluscent fibreglass, the new train shed is intended to inject a bit of design into this prominent part of the train yard while still being a simple, economical industrial structure.