A big new wooden superstructure is about to be built out the back of Parliament House, and is planned to be ready to fit dozens of MPs by the next election.
Parliament is about to expand, and it's not the number of MPs potentially rising - although that is something that the plan to expand is taking into account.
A big new wooden superstructure is about to be built out the back of the Parliament precinct, and it is projected to be ready to fit dozens of MPs by the 2026 election. The building's completion will also mean various Parliament staff who have been working elsewhere around the Wellington CBD can finally come back to the precinct.
For a few years now, some backbench MPs' offices have been stashed away in virtual cupboards in the attic of the Parliament Library. Such is the lack of room in the main Parliament Building that MPs have had to be accommodated here and there in temporary offices across the complex like a motley jenga construction. It's an inefficient layout, but change is coming.
'Siberia'
Groundworks have just been completed for what will be the first significant new building on the Parliament precinct since 1977 when the Beehive got up and running.
Built to "environmentally conscious design", using New Zealand materials and recycled materials to reduce construction waste, the six-storey wooden building will be located around the back of Parliament House on Museum Street, the little road that juts off Bowen Street at the intersection with The Terrace and runs behind the Beehive.
A little over a quarter of MPs, or around 30, will be accommodated in the building, according to Dave Wills, the manager of the Buildings Project Management Office at Parliament, who spoke to The House about the Future Accommodation Strategy project.
The new building for MPs will stand in what was until recently the rear carpark of Parliament. Wills noted that this carpark space has had many buildings on it over the years, including less than glamorous offices that earned this particular part of the precinct the 'Siberia' tag.
"It was referred to by one of our past Prime Ministers as 'Siberia', out the back there. It was a location for backbenchers at the time. And the new building will very much be focused on backbenchers and the parties that support them as well."
The project, which is to be funded under a $257.5 million budget appropriation, also encompasses a new security building, also to be constructed out the back on the carpark space, where it meets Balantrae Place…