Working Style Wellington

The Brief
A long standing client approached the practice to undertake a new fitout, moving from an established tenancy of 18 years to a new site 120 meters away. Select fixtures and fittings from the old tenancy as well as those from the lapsed lease of an Auckland Ponsonby store were to be re-used, in conjunction with new changerooms, storeroom and kitchenette.
Design Intent
The new tenancy was an Edwardian Baroque building that had been altered by the insertion of multi-storey office building. The remaining fragments of the old building facade had aesthetic value for the stylised decorative ornamentation on the carefully proportioned Classical façade to Johnston Street. The purposeful choice of altering and re-using the brass retail fixtures lent themselves to the inherent quality and beauty of the large proportions, coffered ceilings and arched windows reveals creating a profound spatial experience echoing quality. Curated artwork selection of works comprising solely of photographer Mark Smith’s works created a unique New Zealand experience.
Innovation
Two [of four] changerooms were strategically located, along with an immediate store area, to conceal the riser duct and distribution board in within the northeast corner at partial height to comply ruling: change room partition walls need to be at least 500mm below the level of sprinkler head, [existing sprinklers were fixed to underside slab]. This allowed the tenancy to be exempt from building work under Schedule 1 of the Building Act 2004, thus making the scope of works vastly more economical for the client. Brass fittings designed and manufactured by the designer in 2010 for the Ponsonby store, were altered and re-used in conjunction with select new vintage lighting and select new finishes.