Interior March / May 2019

There is no denying that power structures are currently under intense scrutiny. Hierarchies and their inherent power imbalances, a long history of gender bias and abuse within the workplace… they are but a sample of the many polarising topics currently being dissected and challenged in the public sphere. How does interior design fit within those discussions? In the Forum section of this issue, we ask many questions around the politics of the built environment, from inclusive city-making through to the potential for added transparency in the construction supply chain thanks to blockchain (a nascent technology behind cryptocurrencies). We speak to some of the visiting speakers at the NZIA’s in:situ conference including two talented female architects in Canada and the UK who are changing the system from within. We look into…

ANDY SPAIN Photographer Andy studied an MA in Photography in London and moved to New Zealand in 2015. He has spent 15 years as a freelance photographer, specialising in architecture. YOU PHOTOGRAPHED DELOITTE’S OFFICE IN THIS ISSUE. WHAT DID YOU THINK WAS THE MOST INTERESTING THING ABOUT THIS WORKPLACE? It’s all about the arrival with the sculptural island. It contains small offices in which to meet clients alongside glimpses out to Wellington Harbour. It’s a stunning space. WHAT IS YOUR OWN WORKPLACE LIKE? I moved into a new office a while back. I’m lucky enough to be in the old Melling Morse space on Egmont Street in Wellington, alongside Melling Architects and Tse Architects and underneath the iconic skybox. I couldn’t be happier here and love being central. When I…

Liu Jian – grandson to Chairman Mao’s former personal chef – has opened his first restaurant outside of China in Parnell’s rose garden. As a way to maintain the fine-dining and exclusive ethos of his family’s restaurants and as a way of opening up this culinary tradition to the West, Jian’s interior design brief was clear: to break existing stereotypes of what a ‘Chinese’ hospitality interior looks like – “red and gold with hanging lanterns” – he said to Interior. Likewise, its location in a heritage building within the rose garden meant they had to consider its botanical context and architectural history. Close to 9000 individual pieces of tableware have all been individually hand painted by a team who “pass their skills through family generations,” he explained, showing a photo…

Little could have been as surprising as the opening of Miss Fortune’s coffee shop and tea room in Lower Hutt at the beginning of the year. Set against a semi-industrial backdrop, its brazen colour blocks, unblushing amongst their surrounds, sit worlds apart. Co-owned by Matthew Wilson and Freya Atkinson, who also founded Petone’s fairground-esque café Seashore Cabaret, it’s a design that reflects the owners’ penchant for playful eclecticism. Posters from Wilson’s travels around Vietnam, “a personal collection”, he explains, are hung along the walls, while larger-than-life elements, such as the counters and outdoor signage, were made under the direction of Oregon-based graphic design cognoscente and friend, Sam O’Leary of Conduction. As it is with Wilson and Atkinson’s Petone-based venture, at the heart of this eatery is a sense of whimsy…

Renovating a historic building requires an acute sensitivity. Too much historicity and the space can feel outdated; too little and its original charm is lost to modern flourishes. For Mike Marshall, who was charged with designing Tauranga’s Clarence Hotel & Bistro, located inside the city’s former post office, striking the right balance was paramount. “Because it is a historic, Category 1 listed building, which had been used for a multitude of purposes,” he explains, “it was necessary to strip back layers of pastiche and apply a design logic that would sympathetically embellish the building with its modern, contextual approach.” It was a line of action that convinced clients Kim and Noel Cimadon to utilise the floor above the bistro and turn it into a 10-bedroomed boutique hotel. With Noel carefully…

While the budding signs of winter indicate that cold’s to come, they also hint at something else that’s fast approaching: the CoreNet Global New Zealand Symposium, the season’s premier event for property professionals. This year, the symposium has been organised to take place on 30 May in Shed 10 on Auckland’s Queens Wharf and boasts a pertinent theme: The Intuitive Place – Technology making better places for people. Recognising that intuitive design – places that are reactive to their users – is a burgeoning market, the symposium will look at the ways in which companies can harness technology and data to foster greater productivity in the workplace. “The symposium this year is highly relevant to interiors professionals,” says CoreNet executive director for New Zealand, Nigel Rye. “All across the world,…