Interior Interior Jun/Aug 2017

During the past few months, we have been busy putting together the much anticipated Interior Awards and this issue reveals the results. Congratulations to the winners and many thanks to all entrants, sponsors and organisers. Full coverage of the results begins on page 57. Likewise, we were behind Auckland’s Designday Pro and attended the inspiring CoreNet Symposium – this issue covers both. Also in this tome: in the past two years, many New Zealand law firms have been upgrading their workplaces, and several courts have followed suit. To top it off, the Christchurch Justice Precinct, one of the most ambitious legal buildings in the country, is slowly coming to completion. What makes these spaces fascinating is the fact that the most fundamental practices of a functioning civil society take place…

ANDY SPAIN Photographer Andy is an architectural photographer and filmmaker based in Wellington. His UnseenNZ series is featured on pages 102-107. WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE TO GO LOOKING FOR QUIRKY INTERIORS FOR UNSEENNZ? On moving to New Zealand in 2015 (from London) my commercial photography work was a bit thin. I was in the Tararua Tramping Club in Wellington watching a children’s theatre group with my kids, when I looked around the space and thought, what a fantastic interior that says so much about New Zealand culture, so I arranged to photograph it. From there it became quite organic and based on word of mouth (and I’d be grateful for more suggestions!). WHAT HAVE BEEN SOME MEMORABLE ONES? I have just photographed a building that was the Karitane baby food factory in…

Many in the legal fraternity in New Zealand have been busy revitalising their workplace interiors. From Dunedin to Auckland, the past few years have seen a spate of refits and new builds geared to accommodating the profession. The similarities? The corner office with the mahogany desk is vanishing. Representation of hierarchy through spatial divisions is no longer the norm, and firms continue to look to their workplaces for increased efficiency and savings. Here is a sample of some memorable, recent legal workplaces and an educational facility for future law makers. DUNCAN COTTERILL LAWYERS CPRW Fisher Duncan Cotterill Lawyers has a new Auckland home in the Australis Nathan building in Britomart. CPRW Fisher’s David Morgan, design director for the project, says the firm “wanted to create an office fit-out that challenged…

When David Flack launched his eponymous studio in late 2014 he also introduced the world to some new words. ‘Flackify’, according to the Melbourne-based interior designer, is a verb he uses – meaning ‘to transform a space into an experience’. And if there’s anyone who knows a thing or two about that, it’s Flack, who’s quickly built a reputation for delivering high- end hospitality, retail and residential projects of strikingly lush colour and strong materiality. “We’re not serving up beige spaces,” he says. “It’s about challenging myself and the client and also challenging people in general about what design actually is.” Flack approaches every project in the same way to maintain consistent rigour across each of the studio’s portfolios. His ‘Flacktastic’ process can be broken down into four different stages…

Our founding national documents have a new home in the National Library of New Zealand, within a new permanent exhibition called He Tohu. The documents are The Treaty of Waitangi; New Zealand’s declaration of independence, He Whakaputanga; and the 1893 Women’s Suffrage Petition. This Rimu-clad room, which showcases the documents, was designed by Studio Pacific Architecture to reflect the essence of a waka huia, or traditional Maori treasure box. “When we thought about the documents as our treasures, we could think about the building as a waka huia,” explains Studio Pacific Architecture’s Founding Director Evzen Novak. “Other nations have housed such documents in a very grandiose setting. The setting we had available is relatively humble in scale and size, and we’ve chosen to use relatively humble materials. Timber has an…

American fashion designer Thom Browne – who is also known for conceptual installations – has recently turned his creative attention to the humble office desk. The piece, which was commissioned for and unveiled at the opening of Design Miami Basel on 14 June, included a vast grid of the most important desks of the last 100 years. Among them were statement pieces by masters such as Jean Prouvé, Ron Arad, Pierre Paulin’s ‘CM141’ desk (produced by Thonet, circa 1950), Charlotte Perriand, as well as iconic pieces by Charles and Ray Eames, among others. Beside this grid Browne placed the stage set of his 2014 Fall – Winter men’s collection: an eerie monochromatic forest catwalk. To mark the opening of Design Miami, Browne animated the installations through a choreographed performance by…