Pūtahi Belfast School

Urban Effects was proud to contribute to the Ministry of Education’s vision for a contemporary learning environment at Putahi Belfast School.

The school’s values of Awhina / (Care), Mahi Tahi / (Share), Ako (Learn) and E Tipu (Grow) shape every aspect of the learning environment, and the development of its new Senior Campus was an opportunity to bring these to life beyond the classroom walls. 

The school grounds have been carefully designed to enhance the educational experience for the school’s lively cohort of students in Years 5 to 8. With the landscaped outdoor spaces configured to empower learning, foster social interaction, and a stronger care for nature.   

Our team’s expertise in outdoor furniture design and manufacturing ensured that these spaces were furnished to support the overall vision – creating an environment that cultivates a love of connecting and learning together outside the classroom. 

Collaboration was key to achieving this outcome. Working alongside the Pūtahi Belfast School, Glasson Huxtable Landscape Architects and Forever Green Landscaping, we helped integrate functional, aesthetically cohesive outdoor seating into the broader development plan.

The transformation of the school’s outdoor spaces involved the transformation of our own products. To complement the natural yet dynamic feel of the campus, we customised benches from our New Zealand made Woodlands suite.

Budget-friendly, sustainably made and durable, Woodlands benches are a popular choice for schools, and this project showed how versatile they are, too. For this installation, we manufactured a total of 59 Woodlands Classic Benches and cut the premium-grade H3 pine timber slats to varying lengths to enable us to configure the seating to form a variety of shapes. This also allowed the benches to be positioned to provide seating that can not only accommodate large numbers of students, but be used for a multitude of purposes, including as an outdoor classroom. The seating has helped create a visually appealing and inviting space for the students to interact. And we’ve witnessed for ourselves how the seating arrangements have become natural hubs for social and imaginative play that enriches students’ school experience.

Urban Effects also provided outdoor furniture solutions for the adjacent Pitau-Allenale School which caters for students with complex needs.

“The school loves the benches and the students love them because of their shape. The kids told me they love them because they use them as a game, imagining the benches as “walls” and using them as their “hide out”. – Tania Osborne from the Urban Effects Sales Team