Table of contents for INTERIOR_22_201612 in Interior

The brief for the new Apropos men’s flagship concept store in Hamburg was, well, brief. The only requirement was to include the signature touch of pink featured in all its other stores. One of our favourite Parisian interior designers, Rodolphe Parente, was free to design the space as he saw fit. The result is a fusion of luxurious, polished finishes and raw materials that work together to speak to its intended customer: the sophisticated man. “We were very inspired by the potential of the space: a building filled with history with a vast and bright inside volume, and opening onto a scenic lake view,” says Parente. “Apropos is not only a concept store but also represents a lifestyle for men. The project narrates this lifestyle through a neoclassic expression.” With…

Designer – Bates Smart Location – Southbank, Victoria Jury comment – We can summarise the essence of Dinner by Heston Blumenthal in one word: sumptuous. This is an interior that perfectly reflects the ambition of the venue and the chef himself – to transport the diner through a curated experience that is simultaneously calm yet exciting. Blumenthal wants everything to be an adventure, but one that engages the diner with comfort: the design of the interior supports this absolutely. Eschewing the brittle formality that can accompany the high-end gastronomic experience, everything about this interior is ‘squishy’ – to use an oddly non-designer-like word. You sink into the deep comfort of this interior, both literally and conceptually. The experience begins with the entry, a dark and lusciously finished hall that physically…

JEREMY TOTH Photographer Auckland-based Jeremy specialises in photography for architecture, interiors, personal and commercial projects. He captured the Tantalus Winery for this issue. See pages 56–64. WHAT WAS YOUR FAVOURITE ASPECT OF THE SPACE? I enjoyed the bar space downstairs. It is fully lined with intricate red brickwork, which sets it off as a very cosy space to get jovial. WHAT HAS BEEN THE MOST MEMORABLE SUBJECT YOU’VE PHOTOGRAPHED THIS YEAR? I have just finished shooting a video project of a house designed by Peter Stutchbury in Sydney’s Blue Mountains. It is set in a very Australian landscape and offered a lot to explore visually. The house has bold, distinctive features and clearly keyed off the rawness of the landscape it inhabits. To be able to explore its visual and…

The redevelopment was led by architecture firms Warren and Mahoney and Jerram Tocker Barron Architects. Occupying a tight triangular section, the original gallery and a theatre designed in the 1980s act as bookends on the site. “One key design strategy was to make a central focus of the public entrance and a forecourt, which gives recognition to the old gallery,” says Ralph Roberts, principal at Warren and Mahoney. A new foyer and internal walkway that now links the two existing structures contain a series of galleries on the west side, while to the east retail spaces and a café overlook a freshwater eel pond and the Victorian gardens. thesuter.org.nz ALL THAT GLITTERS Tiffany has recently opened its first Auckland store in the heritage-listed Australis House, overlooking Takutai Square. The design…

How did you get started? George: All three of us have known each other at various points in life. Jack and I studied together at Massey University, both doing industrial design, and Matt was studying textile design. I was overseas for a couple of years and when I came back got really friendly with Jack, who decided to do signwriting. What sort of stuff were you doing? Jack: It was vinyl and we had a little laser cutter then. We did a few bits and pieces. I think by that time we’d built The Hangar [Café] and I realised that I didn’t really enjoy making signs that much and I started trying to diversify a bit but with no clear direction where it was going. We started to get asked…

Designer – DesignOffice Location – Melbourne, Victoria Jury comment – Higher Ground is an exceptionally executed exercise in solving logistical challenges while safeguarding the expression of, and respect for, an existing spatial volume – a historic former power station in the western end of Melbourne’s city grid. The design team has shown considerable restraint in defining the space, creating a host of experiences at different levels (both literally and figuratively), resulting in what the jury has referred to as an “urban drawing room”. Rather than relying on visual tropes that reflect well-known hospitality types, the space is ambiguous in the way that a high-end hotel foyer can be. The client refers to this as the ambition to create a “hotel without rooms”, and the desire to make something the likes…

PROJECT: TVNZ Headquarters CLIENT: TVNZ LOCATION: Auckland Central DESIGN: Warren and Mahoney PROJECT TYPE: Workplace FLOOR AREA: 17,000m2 SEVERAL MEDIA outlets have reorganised their work spaces in order to better reflect the changing nature of the sector and new modes of media production. Both Mediaworks and NZME have recently restructured their businesses and have taken the opportunity to demonstrate this change in the design of their spaces. Adding to this trend is a reimagining of the TVNZ headquarters in Auckland, which was recently opened by Prime Minister John Key, alongside the Minister of Broadcasting, Amy Adams, and TVNZ’s chief executive, Kevin Kenrick. The renovation of the 26-year-old building was carried out by its original designers, Warren and Mahoney. At the time of its construction, the original building was an innovative…

Credit for this sparkling effect is due to James Russ and his team at Epsilon Lighting, who took sketches from Cheshire’s designers and created these remarkable lights using uprooted vines from the estate and more than 4,500 miniature LEDS, handwoven into the vines with exposed copper wire. Despite the organic material, these are very high-tech lights, with LED drivers hidden within the fixtures and high CRI LED bulbs used to ensure the food looks its best. A skeletal structure of solid brass holds the vines together. To make the junctions for these, Epsilon 3D-printed the mould, then investment-cast them, then poured molten brass into the cavities. This meticulous process gave the parts an aged, textured look. When Epsilon ran low on brass, they bought out all the brass taps at…

“In the Chinese language, the word ‘crisis’ is composed of two characters, one representing danger and the other, opportunity.” This is according to John F Kennedy in a 1959 speech to US military – and is a trope used by a number of motivational speakers since. While there is debate about whether this translation is accurate, the idea behind it carries weight. No one would have wished the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes on Christchurch, but it has provided the city with the opportunity to rebuild and build better. For Sheppard & Rout, the earthquakes forced them out of the villa that had been the base for their architectural practice since 1982. Aside from the building needing repair, the earthquakes had generated more work for the practice and their numbers had…

Dean Mackenzie Along with Hamish Monk, Dean is a director with Monk Mackenzie Architects. He has worked for the Office for Metropolitan Architecture and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in New York. He has significant experience across large and complex infrastructural, cultural and commercial projects throughout the United States, Middle East and Asia. Key local projects Dean has been involved with include Appian Way, a high-density residential development which includes retail and commercial components, the neon-pink LightPath and he is currently working on a medium density residential scheme in Grey Lynn. Toni Brandso is one of the founding partners of Material Creative. She worked in the retail design sector for many years before collaborating with Liv Harper on their first project together, The Piha Café, which sparked a love of hospitality…

If diamonds really are forever, as the song goes, then the act of purchasing them should be just as special as the jewellery itself. This is the idea behind the creation of Miramôr Studio, an independent, by-appointment-only jewellery studio situated in the old Magistrate’s Court in Auckland’s Metropolis building. Created by Nicola Morris in response to what she felt were lacklustre fine jewellery options in Auckland, the studio is designed to create a luxurious and sophisticated retail experience for its customers. Sophie Beever of Cavit & Co was given the inspiring task of bringing this idea to fruition. “There are so many light and bright commercial spaces trending at the moment that it was exciting to have someone want to go the other way. It is a look that can…

Designer – Sans-Arc Studio Location – Adelaide, South Australia Jury comment – Pink Moon Saloon is a diminutive venue that occupies a former rubbish-bin alley sandwiched between two office buildings in a laneway in central Adelaide. The project is simultaneously audaciously ambitious and modest. It successfully manages to make something from nothing – a forgotten space infused with a feeling of joy, which the jury found particularly contagious. While the design undoubtedly pursues a sense of genuine fun, it also taps into that deep Australian memory of long-forgotten cubby houses and sheds. It is here, within this archetypal connotation, where joyful celebration takes place. Pink Moon Saloon has been executed with a razor-sharp eye for detail, and the overall design, while being immediately familiar in some uncanny way, manages to…

Designer – Studio Esteta Location – Fitzroy, Victoria Jury comment – Lune Croissanterie is many things all at once: an experience, an event, a showroom for goods, even a shrine complete with altar – all to the greater glory of one thing: the croissant. Taking the concept of laser-focused purpose to a new, higher level, Lune Croissanterie perfectly showcases the prodigious talents required to create this one type of pastry, along with a range of variations on the core retail theme. The act of creating and selling what The New York Times has referred to as arguably the “world’s best croissant” has been given a focused and exceptional interior, where the visitor is stepped through the process of ordering and purchasing as if through a religious-like observance. As with a…

PROJECT: Tantalus Estate Winery CLIENTS: Carrie Mendell and Campbell Aitken LOCATION: Waiheke Island DESIGN: Cheshire Architects PROJECT TYPE: Hospitality FLOOR AREA: Approx. 1,000m2 IT’S BEEN three years in the making and Tantalus Estate in Onetangi Valley has finally opened its doors to customers. I arrive just before lunchtime on a Thursday and a few keen punters are there to taste the vineyard’s wines and have a look at the transformation of the property, which once verged on a junkyard with a rundown old building at its centre, but is now a top-notch estate designed by Cheshire Architects. Young couple Carrie Mendell and Campbell Aitken purchased the property in 2013, with initial plans to open a hip craft brewery. However, these plans morphed into something a little more spectacular: the venue…