Welcome to the new archives building - vault of the nation’s memory

Tuesday, 8 July 2025

A tour through the new Archives Building.

The rows of shelving are mostly empty at the new Archives New Zealand building Te Rua - the memory of the nation - but not for long.

The $290-million Archives NZ building in Wellington has been completed. It is the country’s most seismically resilient public building with literally everything designed to protect the nation’s taonga - from the massive base isolators that will allow the building to withstand earthquakes, to the little shelf within a shelf to stop items falling.

A tour through the new Archives building. National Librarian Rachel Esson, Internal Affairs' director of Tāhuhu Rob Stevens, and Chief Archivist Anahera Morehu in the blue coded floor with the still empty shelves.

Next week there will be a start to moving the millions of treasures from the old building in Mulgrave St into the new building which is linked to the National Library by a bridge.

The move is expected to take up to 18 months.

The Post got a tour after the blessing on Tuesday starting with the huge isolators in the basement which can expand to help protect the building.

Morehu in the specially designed shelves that will lock in place during an earthquake to prevent them falling and protecting the taonga they are holding.

Under the stairwell is what’s been called God’s Pencil - a sharp point over a yellow paint pad that will show the movement by scratching as it moves.

“We’re quite keen to see what God draws,” Internal Affairs' director of Tāhuhu Rob Stevens says.

Morehu and Stevens with one of the 36 massive base isolators.

The idea of the new archives was raised 15 years ago and then eight years ago the project began.

Upstairs are several floors of shelving - each colour coded, temperature controlled and completely windowless. The shelves are designed not to overturn or buckle and bend. They then lock in place to prevent movement.

National Librarian Rachel Esson said the colour code was needed to help staff remember where they were.

Under the stairwell is what has been dubbed God’s pencil which, in the event of an earthquake, will make marks in the paint below indicating how the building has shifted.

There will be a shared reading room service in the National Library.

Chief Archivist Anahera Morehu said they took one piece from Mulgrave St to put in each level to keep the place “warm” for the rest of the collections that are being moved across.

Upstairs in the staff area is a nearly 360-degree view of the city, new desks and a breathtaking view of the harbour that’s going to make working hard.

Heke Rua, the new archives building - showing the floors without any windows for the collection and the top floors for staff.

Te Rua has 36 triple-pendulum base isolators, the largest installed in New Zealand, with each isolator weighing more than 13 tonnes. That means the building can shift 1.6m in any direction, which allows it to disconnect from ground movement during a major earthquake.

The building sits on piles 55m deep, double the height of the building, to anchor it into the ground and support the 775,000kg of archival shelving.

Stevens said a particularly high level of strengthening was involved, with the eight-storey structure equivalent in weight to a regular 30-storey office building.

Even the walls have rubber joints that will allow the building to flex.

It was a new idea to lease a building that was specially built - previously buildings had been owned.

Te Rua is on the site previously occupied by Freyberg House, which was damaged in the 7.8 magnitude Kaikōura earthquake in 2016 and demolished in 2018, just 11 years after being officially opened.

Archives NZ has taken a 25-year lease on the new building, with multiple options to extend, and it is set to open to the public in 2026.