The architects have unlocked the potential of long-forgotten buildings in a newly rediscovered part of the city to produce a surprising little world of interconnected and characterful spaces. Glazed vertical shafts bring light into the buildings’ interior, in which the existing fabric has been retained to provide welcome evidence of a century of built history. It is heartening to see, in Auckland, a project that eschews the obvious, civilizes an unsavoury back street, and suggests the city is waking up to the value of its surviving architectural legacy.