Collaborative campus

IN 1999, THE AMERICAN BOOKSTORE CHAIN

Borders opened a huge outlet on Queen Street. Its stock must have been as large as every other central city bookstore put together, with shelves of magazines, books, music, videos and two cafés threaded through a warren of spaces and levels that burrowed down into the basement of a flamboyant new cinema multiplex. Borders was the first of a new style of superstore to arrive in New Zealand – stores that included a café and a programme of events – and marked in retail the start of a casualisation that had begun in institutions a few years earlier with café-equipped libraries designed by Athfield.

Like every idea, this one could be executed with varying levels of commitment and success. At its best, it instigated a rising sense of