Preservation, protection and promotion of architectural practice records support scholarship and wider community discussions about our built environment.
The Architectural Centre, in association with the Gonville Centre for Urban Research, is working to establish an independent archive of Aotearoa New Zealand’s architecture.
This project aims to:
- Collect and digitise paper records
- Collect digital-born (CAD) records
- Develop best practice guides and tools for existing practices and institutions
- Work toward a publicly searchable, nationwide, aggregating database of architectural topics and material.
In 2024 the Centre commissioned Heritage Associates to produce a Feasibility Study for the proposed archive. This was completed in 2025, presenting findings of 4 case studies. These ranged from contemporary, mixed analogue/digital collections to historical, paper only collections.
There have been two ‘digitisation’ trials, celebrated through small public events. Follow the links below to see image galleries.
The Eisenhofer fonds, the Archive’s inaugural accession, was transferred to secure storage and indexed in November 2025.
If you have queries about collections at risk or would like to support the project in any way please get in touch.
