DEFINITIVELY DARING

IN DETAIL

Alocal business is creating some of the country’s most innovative and striking lighting products from its studio in the centre of Christchurch.

Nightworks is situated on the banks of the Avon and offers a range of ready-made lighting and bespoke solutions. These are all constructed from the finest stone, glass, and metals, with leading LED technology. The in-house studio is a creative hub for definitively daring designs.

The studio and production workshop is a calm and considered space that forgoes the norms of a traditional lighting showroom. Set within architect David Allen’s Poynton House, the natural textures, light, and warm tones provide the perfect backdrop for their latest lighting collections.

The showroom effortlessly flows through to the design studio and onto a production and meeting space, creating an immersive environment for visitors. Retractable linen curtains separate the spaces, which can be drawn to provide private meeting zones or opened to allow visitors to move freely.

Husband and wife directors Ben and Kiri Wahrlich’s joint vision for Nightworks started on their return to Aotearoa in 2017. After running a similarly-lauded Sydney lighting studio, the duo wanted to refresh the brand to echo a modern Kiwi lifestyle. Nightworks came into being in 2019 and, since then, has won multiple awards.

Two designs have recently won at the 2022 Best Awards – a gold and silver for their designs ‘Tasman’ and ‘Offcut’. The judges discussed the designs’ beautiful balance of elegant form and precision manufacturing processes. High praise was given to the well-resolved lighting system. The gracefully arced form and slim profile create an elegant silhouette that would add interest to its environment.

Tasman, a poetic and sculptural design “expressed to its fullest potential”, is a family of modular LED pendants created with components that simply connect for a gentle waving form.

As a minimal and sculptural alternative to traditional linear pendants, it is designed to harmoniously integrate into any interior environment.

With the studio’s winning design of Offcut, every iteration of the lighting design is unique. The natural stone is hand-selected from local suppliers, then carefully and intently ‘broken’ in-house. A customdesigned glass dome sits delicately on the stone surface. It emits a soft glow via the LED module housed within, meaning these juxtaposed elements combine to create a bold contemporary aesthetic. The textural form is intended to be a welcome break in the formality of modern construction. The Nightworks team can also work with clients who may provide their own stone to create a more personalised version of Offcut.

One definitive local project the team worked on was the centrepiece of the Public Trust Building’s lobby – an immense and impressive bespoke chandelier called ‘Code Cascade’. The minimalist chandelier was created by combining stunning Sydney sandstone with precision brass fixings interlaced with glowing glass spheres. Drawing inspiration from the dots and dashes of Morse code, material elements were drawn from the building’s original construction to create a contemporary centrepiece that complements the heritage character of the building.

The Nightworks team has an original design approach, ensuring a project will stand out from the ordinary and is engineered to last.

nightworksstudio.com