Located in Porirua, Courtyard Assemblies - the new ABI Rehabilitation Centre - was conceived as a benchmark facility for long-term patient care—providing 50 inpatient beds alongside outpatient rehabilitation services for people recovering from brain injuries and other neurological conditions. While the project’s primary goal was to deliver a state-of-the-art healthcare environment, it also served as an important design laboratory for The Poneke Company, exploring how modular accommodation could be applied to larger, more complex commercial buildings.

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The design was developed around a repeatable series of rooms arranged around landscaped courtyards—each with its own function, from therapy and consultation to recreation and quiet retreat. This repetitive plan provided the perfect framework for testing modular construction strategies. During the concept and design phases, The Poneke Company created functional mock-ups and virtual simulations to refine both small-scale elements, such as joinery modules, and the wider site layout. The aim was to produce a simplified, tangible model for buildings where key components could be manufactured offsite, yet still contribute to a distinctive, site-specific architectural identity.

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Although the final building was ultimately delivered through a more traditional on-site contract with Armstrong Downes Construction—completed under the constraints of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020—the lessons learned from this prototyping process have directly informed The Poneke Company’s ongoing approach to modularised accommodation. This project demonstrated how a single-storey, courtyard-based hospital could achieve operational efficiency, patient comfort, and aesthetic coherence, while still offering a scalable framework for future modular builds.

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Architect: The Poneke Company in collaboration with Gerard Dombroski Workshop
Photos: Conor Dolman