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For Suncorp’s offices over five floors in Auckland’s Vero building, Aspect Furniture was chosen to supply a large portion of the furniture items. Go to trendsideas.com to see another Aspect Furniture project.
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CONTENTS
Highlights from this issue of Commercial Design Trends
Suncorp New Zealand, Auckland
Waikoukou/22 Boulcott St, Wellington
Synergy, CSIRO, Acton, ACT
Marlborough Primary School, London
King’s School Centennial Building, Auckland
West Hotel, Sydney
Naumi Auckland Airport, Auckland
Morpheus Hotel, Macau
Market Report: Hotel Design
Wellington
Auckland
Christchurch
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SECTION FOCUS WORKPLACE DESIGN
RETHINKING THE WHEEL A move to new premises brings opportunity for more than a change in decor – it offers a chance to fundamentally review your business culture
Project Suncorp New Zealand
Location: Auckland
Interior design: Unispace
INCLUSIVE AESTHETIC When Suncorp New Zealand consolidated its various companies over five consecutive floors in Auckland’s Vero Centre, greater workplace flexibility, collaboration, productivity and connectivity were key drivers for the inclusive fit-out
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Previous pages and these pages:The mid-level of Suncorp’s consolidated new five-level premises in Auckland’s Vero Centre is the front-of-house space for all of Suncorp’s New Zealand brands. A feature ceiling – one of several in the fit-out – creates interest and acts as an acoustic dampener.
When Suncorp New Zealand renewed its lease in Auckland’s Vero Centre, it took the opportunity
Unispace’s project designer for the consolidating five-level fit-out.
to use an office refurbishment to transform its way of working and bring its strategy to life.
“Suncorp wanted the reinvented offices to offer a modern, inclusive environment to represent their
Connecting its employees was the central vision
brand and values – at the same time rewarding staff
for Suncorp, but reducing its footprint and providing a more flexible and collaborative workspace were
with a space that encourages an overall sense of belonging, safety, and wellbeing.”
also key goals the design brief needed to meet. While Suncorp New Zealand and its well known
Several location and design strategies were used to achieve the sense of togetherness and improved
brands, Vero and Asteron Life, were all operat-
efficiencies required over Suncorp’s five floors.
ing in the same building, they had felt siloed and disconnected with some reached by low-rise lifts
“The various functions are now grouped for improved efficiencies – for example, the contact
and others by high-rise lifts, says Harry Rowntree,
centres for all entities are on level 15, with cafe-style
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spaces also situated on this level and on level 11. And the front-of-house client floor shared by all
floors. Contained areas, such as meeting rooms, are towards the centre of the floorplate, optimis-
employees is located midway up, on the 13th floor,” says Rowntree.
ing natural light penetration and views for the outer workstation zones.
“There’s a built-in egalitarian aspect to the
“Unispace worked closely with Suncorp to
allocation of spaces too – the uppermost floor could have been reserved for executives, instead of being
develop a warm, soft material palette to create a welcoming aesthetic throughout. Strong brand
allocated as an amalgamated contact staff area.” The reworked spaces now offer an activity-
colours were avoided, in favour of a more cohesive, connected look and feel.”
based environment with unassigned seating
The new staircase linking all floors is crucial to the
and a strong emphasis on personal lockers over personal workspaces. Breakout areas, wellness
functionality and success of the space and was a major architectural undertaking with 150 tonnes of
rooms and a prayer room are dotted through the
concrete taken out and 60 tonnes of steel moved in. This page:A new stairway that visibly and functionally connects all five levels is the main unifying element of the inclusive fit-out. Facing page:From the 13th floor public entry space, visitors and customers can interact with the floors above and below – a strong visual symbol of integrated businesses.
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Utilised by Suncorp employees, its central location enhances the idea of connectivity, with staff being visible as they move through the five floors. Visitors can view the flights of stairs from the public 13th floor, while security is seamlessly preserved. To encourage movement through the levels, each floor has a ‘destination’ that’s prominent from the stairs – ranging from a large social breakout space, to a Smartbar helpdesk, various training suites and, of course, the front-of-house space on level 13. “The combination of consolidated efficiencies and flexible, multipurpose general spaces has more
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than compensated for the overall reduction in floor area,” says Rowntree. “Most importantly, the project has been hailed as a great success by the hundreds of Suncorp staff who work there.”
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Top left:In general, desk use is flexible with lockers being the personal base for staff members. Above left:One of the modern staff training rooms intentionally in close proximity to the stairs. Above:Extensive greenery was integrated into the joinery design to enliven and soften the spaces. The curved ceiling lighting in this cafe calls to mind the Suncorp logo, while the rubber floor is made from recycled car tyres.
Project:Suncorp New Zealand Interior design:Harry Rowntree, Unispace Construction:Alaska Interiors Landlord architect:Gaze Commercial Structural engineer:Aurecon Mechanical and electrical engineer:Norman Disney & Young (NDY) Quantity surveyor:Barnes Beagley Doherr (BBD) Fire consultant:Cross Fire Window/door joinery:Stanley Group Hardware:SopersMac Blinds:NZ Blinds & Shades Tiling:SCE Stone Flooring:Flooring Junction and Forte Flooring
Wallcoverings/ceiling panels:Autex Industries Veneers:Prime Panels Paints:Resene Lighting:KKDC Heating/air conditioning:Chillex Workstations:Aspect Furniture Soft furniture Vidak Office chairs:Haworth Reception furniture:Simon James Design Additional furniture:Tim Webber Story by Charles Moxham Photography by Shannon McGrath
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HIGH-PERFORMANCE DESIGN Ergonomic, visually pleasing furniture solutions were a must for the fit-out of Suncorp’s new Vero offices – Aspect Furniture supplied the majority of pieces
When Suncorp consolidated its various brands over five floors in Auckland’s iconic Vero building, specialist Aspect Furniture was chosen as preferred supplier for a large portion of the furniture items. Selected through a competitive tender process, Aspect was able to demonstrate excellence in all areas of project delivery, from design, to manufacture, to sourcing and overall service – along with a strong track record completing similar commercial projects. A key part of the project for Aspect was supplying two locally manufactured Aspect Workpoint solutions – Zurich 5 and Stork, says the company’s national sales manager Roy Campion. “Both systems were selected for their technical capabilities, refined detailing and seamless cable management systems. They feature in the open plan work spaces and are paired with a cohesive range of accessories.” The Zurich 5 system caters for both back-toback and stand-alone formats and can be easily switched between the two configurations. Stork is an architecturally detailed table system, with solid timber subframe, that is ideal for shared project spaces or drop-down workpoints. Aspect Furniture also supplied DO ergonomic seating, Agility meeting tables and Stork leaners throughout the contemporary fit-out. “For a space that people come to every day, every minor detail can make a major difference,” says Campion. “We believe high performing spaces enable high performing people, so we create office environments that are a pleasure to work in.” To contact Aspect Furniture’s four nationwide branches, head online: www.aspectfurniture.com
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Above:Commercial specialists Aspect Furniture manufactured and sourced a variety of pieces for the Suncorp fit-out.
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Auckland 09-279 5250
Wellington 04-569 3262
Christchurch 03-379 3216
Project Waikoukou/22 Boulcott St, Wellington
Architect: Architecture +
Interior designer: Jasmax
Contractor: McKee Fehl
DIVIDE AND RULE Waikoukou – the new home of Transpower – results from the merger of existing buildings, seismically upgraded and linked around a bright new six-level atrium
Brand new, high-functioning office space right in the heart of Wellington isn’t in ready abundance. However, there’s another, braver, way to achieve the open floorplate, fit-for-purpose modern environment an expanding, go-ahead business might require – appropriate and group buildings already standing. This was the approach taken for Transpower’s new head office in the capital, says project architect Allan Wright of Architecture +, the firm that designed the complex redevelopment that’s now the contemporary, connected Waikoukou. “When our client, developer Maurice Clark of Cheops Holdings, acquired the existing buildings they had been vacant for some time,” says Wright. “Overall, they were of very different design and vintage – the earliest dating back to the 1930s, with the most recent significant works undertaken in the 1980s. “The interconnected buildings – previously home to the Dom-Post – had been a labyrinthine affair, with poor links between the two existing main north and south buildings. And all these buildings had suffered from neglect. In fact, a significant leap of the imagination was required to see beyond the under-maintained buildings and envisage a contemporary office environment. The brief was to reorganise, strengthen and open up the cellular buildings and create generous, contiguous, open-office floors focussed around a central atrium space. “We also had to bring the disparate collection of buildings and exterior facades together into a cohesive whole,” says Wright. There were several aspects to the programme – beyond the fundamental seismic and structural upgrades of the buildings – required to meet Transpower’s operational requirements. These included stripping out old interior walls, adding three levels to the southern building and creating
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the glass-roofed atrium, linking stairs and a formal entrance to the inner-city offices. Then there was the replacement of old exterior frontages and the installation of facades to the new areas with an energy-efficient curtain wall system. This gave the disparate parts of the buildings an harmonious aesthetic, as viewed from the street. Lastly, tenant car parking has been located in the basement levels of the southern building and in the lower levels of the northern building. Perhaps the two most dramatic aspects of the project to visitors, however, are the central atrium and double height entry on Boulcott Street. “The building has a Boulcott Street address and the major entrance is here – at the western end of the atrium,” says the architect. The double height entry forms a transition between the northern building and the existing twostorey southern building podium, with a stepped pedestrian canopy from the northern end down to the southern edge, on lower Boulcott Street. A pedestrian link was also developed to allow Transpower staff an easy connection through the refurbished building to a new laneway connection that leads out to Willis Street. “However, the new atrium with its cross bridges and prominent connecting stairs is figuratively and literally the heart of the scheme, providing a central focus and principal circulation space. The large atrium brings natural light right into the heart of the building on all levels and offers a dynamic space for chance meetings and social interaction.” Almost all the existing floor plates were retained in the architectural transformation, except for the areas of floor removed to accommodate the atrium. However, a serious amount of demolition of walls was undertaken to open out the floor plates, particularly walls along the north wall of the atrium.
Over 3500m3 of concrete and masonry and 250 tonnes of reinforcing steel were removed in all.
“The use of BRBs allowed for the majority of the seismic structure to be located at the edges of the
Stephen Cummings of McKee Fehl Constructors says sequencing of the structural changes had to
floors, resulting in open, uncluttered office space.” The BRB is a contemporary seismic device with
be carefully developed to ensure the stability of the
an outer sheath of steel and an inner steel member
buildings wasn’t compromised during the works. “For example, the creation of the atrium required
set in concrete that functions as a structural damper, yielding and absorbing energy.
major and lengthy structural demolition, including the removal of a full shearwall from ground to level
“Installing the BRBs into the existing structure was our greatest challenge,” says Cummings. “The
5 that was the main spine of the north building,”
connection details through the existing beams and
says Cummings. However, this work couldn’t start until a com-
columns required scanning, hammer drilling and then templating for the bracket installation.
pletely new structural system had been installed in key locations. The new structural system was
“Every connection ended up being different, and there was very little tolerance for installing the final
achieved with sprayed concrete shearwalls to the north building, along with installing Buckling
BRB. We also had to contend with the usual innercity issues of no storage space and limited access.”
Restraint Braces (BRBs) into the existing structure.
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Transpower’s interior design was by Jasmax, with
Previous pages:A grouping of adjacent inner-city buildings with an open atrium at its heart has shaped Waikoukou, the new light-filled, cutting edge head offices of Transpower. The design is by Architecture +, with interior fit-out by Jasmax. Left A solar- and sound-efficient glass curtain wall runs over the new and existing exterior walls, drawing Waikoukou together. Facing page:A double-height formal entry on Boulcott Street greets visitors to the Transpower head office. The atrium stair that links all levels of the fit-out rises over Waikoukou’s lobby.
Rebecca Burton as interior design lead. “Jasmax was commissioned to provide workplace
For example, while the main cafe is on the ground floor, staff kitchens are prominently sited
strategy and interior design for the project,” says Burton. “We worked closely with Transpower to
near the stairs on each floor and so are visible from both sides of the atrium. These areas are designed
bring 700 staff from several different sites together
as much for use as casual meeting spaces as they
in one collaborative, agile, connected environment.” The fit-out has a semi-industrial feel with alu-
are for preparing and eating lunch. Colourful, floor-specific signage, furniture and
minium mesh featuring on the central stair, raw concrete floors at ground level, and a pared back
carpet patterning contribute to the energy of the interiors, and these elements can be seen when
choice of finishes generally. This aesthetic worked
looking up or down or across the atrium. The
particularly well in an environment where ceilings, walls, floor and corridors had to be reconciled as
colour-coded wayfinders add vibrancy and return a sense of localised space that’s otherwise lost by
the complex build forms were drawn together. The new reception was one area where Jasmax
the comprehensive move to flexible desking. “Transpower had actually set a target for the new
worked with exposed beams and a confined area to create a feature ceiling with a zigzag lighting feature
building at 20% flexible and 80% fixed but by the end of the project this had reversed to 80% flexible
that acts like a wayfinder in its own right. The geometric feature is one of several touches that play on the idea of looking up through a power pylon and seeing the gridwork as a pattern from below. This element is also echoed on the faceted front of the
and 20% fixed,” says Burton. “ On moving in, 90% of staff were using unassigned desking.” The complexities of working within a number of existing buildings, often armed with only basic documentation of the structures, might sound
reception desk and on the graphic acoustic absorbtion panels on the atrium staircase. However, it’s the six-level atrium that is the star feature in the interior design, and the fit-out actively encourages activity across and around it.
like anyone’s architectural or logistical nightmare. However, close teamwork between Architecture +, McKee Fehl Constructors and Jasmax resolved these issues to create Waikoukou – a modern, energetic work space for Transpower.
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Below:An angular ceiling treatment, a zigzag wayfinding light feature and faceted reception desk front all call to mind the geometric play of struts seen when looking straight up through a power pylon. Facing page:Aluminium mesh balustrades on the bridges spanning the atrium contribute to the fit-out’s semi-industrial palette. Chairs, tables, patterned carpets and wall signs mean you always know which floor you’re on, or going to, at a glance. Following pages The geometric panels on the atrium stairwell further the pylon graphic theme and act as acoustic dampeners – particularly important given the stairs’ metal construction and the open nature of the office spaces.
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Below The new light-filled atrium reconciles different levels in the project, and draws natural light into the heart of the buildings.
Project:Waikoukou/22 Boulcott Street, Wellington Architect:Architecture + Developer:Cheops Holdings Interior design:Jasmax Construction:McFee Fehl Constructors Mechanical engineer:Cor Associates Electrical engineer:Blackyard Fire consultant:Holmes Fire Structural engineer:Beca Cladding:Curtain wall, Thermosash Roof:Torch on Membrane by Equus Lift services:Schindler Wallcoverings:Hushpanel, Autex, various Paints:Dulux and Resene Interior Paint Systems Kitchen, utility joinery, workstations:Custom by Ferndale Furniture Reception desk Birch Elite Ply from Plytech, by Ferndale Window/door joinery:Potter Interior Systems Hardware Henry and Kemp Blinds:Sun filter – Alu-Tech, in Copper; blackout – Valencia Premium FR, in Charcoal; both from Window Treatments Flooring:Human Nature Collection carpet by Inzide Commercial for reception; Architectural Terrazzite in café area; Forbo Marmoleum in kitchens; Ontera carpet tiles from CWA Carpet for working floors; Aspecta Five Vinyl Plank, from Jacobsens; Tarkett Granit SD antistatic vinyl for computer rooms by Jacobsens; polished concrete by BM Scott Acoustic panels:Daiken Harmony acoustic ceiling tiles in office spaces, Hush Panel slotted white acoustic linings in atrium, 3D Polyester panels and other Hush decorative ceilings – all supplied by T&R Systems; Quiet Space Workstation from Autex Industries; Ecoustic Panel from Vivid Textiles; faceted custom acoustic panelling to atrium and feature ceilings by Oroqi Lighting LED strip lighting from Moth Lighting; pendants from ECC, Zenith Interiors, and Moth Lighting Other furniture: Aspect and Ferndale Furniture Kitchen equipment: Bosch Dishwasher, Skope Vertical Chiller and Starline Steriliser by Washtech Awards: Property Council – Best in Category, Commercial Office Property Award; 2018 Property Council Supreme Winner; Master Builders – National Category and Gold Winner 2018; NZIA Local awards (Wellington) – winner, Commercial and Interior Architecture categories Story by Charles Moxham Photography by Andy Spain
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LIGHT FROM WITHIN When it came to upgrading the lighting for the Auckland Transport offices in the curvaceous, high-profile VXV20 building, Aesthetics Lighting Solutions provided a precision, local response
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Below:When Auckland Transport moved to the VXV20 building – previously the Vodafone building – local firm Agile Engineering Consultants designed the new lighting systems while Aesthetics Lighting Solutions delivered the customised products. These were then installed by Team Cabling.
When Auckland Transport leased the former Vodafone building from developer Goodman Property it was refurbished for the organisation’s nine-year lease, and that included a new lighting design. The 14,085m2 Auckland CBD building, renamed VXV20 and noted for its sweeping, curved glass facade, is on the corner of Fanshawe and Halsey Streets in the Wynyard precinct. Agile Engineering Consultants undertook the lighting design for the upgrade, while Aesthetics Lighting Solutions – the project division of Gerard Lighting – supplied the lights and light accessories. Electrical contractor Team Cabling then tackled the installation. Emmet McAteer, lighting consultant at Aesthetics Lighting Solutions, says some tricky solutions were required for the fit-out, and that local customisation produced the required results. “The ceiling grid in the VXV20 building is laid in an infrequently used 1350mm x 1350mm format, which comprises three 450mm x 1350mm tiles,” says McAteer. “The main light fittings were required to sit in the centre of these three tiles, with the only connection to the T-rail being at the ends of the fitting, with nothing down the side. “However, standard recessed lighting modules are typically 1200mm x 300mm, which suit most regular ceiling grid sizes but wouldn’t have worked here. Instead, we utilised our own Pierlite GenLed One Module and at the same time custom-made a frame here in New Zealand for the light to sit in, so it would work with the unusual grid requirements.” This frame was punched from one piece of metal, so there are no folds or welds at the corners. Aesthetics Lighting Solutions first developed the PierlIte GenLed for the International Towers Barangaroo project on the Sydney waterfront and the fixture won the award of Excellence at the International Lighting Design Awards in 2016. Downlights were another part of the AT project requirements and, again, a local solution delivered. The New Zealand-designed and assembled Aesthetics interchangeable Turama range was used extensively. These downlights were specifically
designed in New Zealand to allow for LED modules, reflectors, drivers and accessories to be mixed and matched to achieve the right lighting performance for every situation. “In a day and age where it is easy to import large volumes of standard-configuration fittings relatively inexpensively, it is rare to have a local company capable of customising solutions accurately, quickly, and also cost effectively,” says McAteer. Aesthetics Lighting Solutions services the whole New Zealand market, with team members based in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. The company boasts a strong environmental and corporate social awareness and is invested in providing environmentally sustainable and energy efficient lighting solutions. As a result, Aesthetic Lighting is able to offer highly technical lighting control solutions to maximise energy efficiency, and return on client investment. As well as supplying office lighting, Aesthetics Lighting provides highly efficient luminaire systems for retail, hospitality, industrial, sports, and roadway projects, together with decorative and architectural systems for domestic and interior design lighting. High-profile projects utlising products from Aesthetics Lighting include The Cloud, the Australis & Nathan buildings, North West Shopping Centre, ASB North Wharf, and the Datacom building – all in Auckland. Other high-profile sites in New Zealand using the Pierlite GenLed fixture are 82 Wyndham Street and Commercial Bay Tower, currently under construction. Parent company Gerard Lighting carries several local and international brands, including Pierlite, Sylvania, Austube, SIDE and Diginet. For more information on commercial lighting specialists Aesthetics Lighting Solutions, phone: 0508 743 757, email: enquiries@aesthetics.co.nz, or alternatively head online: www.aesthetics.co.nz
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FOR A BETTER ENVIRONMENT With planet-friendly materials and the life cycle of a building now fundamental design considerations, the choice of sustainable materials is a must – Polyflor’s vinyl flooring options tick several green boxes
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Below:Polyflor offers modern vinyl floors in a wide variety of styles, to suit everything from education, healthcare and leisure environments to offices, retail outlets and age-care facilities. Strong green credentials are a feature of these durable surfaces.
The world of commercial design is changing,
boasting up to 25 per cent recycled content. When
with green credentials now an integral part of almost every project. This includes the specification of
processed through the Recofloor Vinyl Take-Back Scheme, the vinyl can be recycled many times over
certified sustainable materials wherever possible –
without losing its performance and functionality. “In addition, Polyflor’s new product development
and flooring is naturally a major component of this. The Polyflor range of products caters to those looking for superior quality and a variety of options, but there’s another emphasis, too, says managing director of Polyflor New Zealand Glenn Richardson. “What sets Polyflor apart from its competitors is its strong commitment to the environment,” says Richardson. “As one example, the Ecospecifier Global GreenTag Cert scheme is a third-party ecolabel program that rates sustainable products in areas such as gas emissions, habitat degradation and toxicity to land, air and water – and Polyflor’s many products are certified under this scheme in Australia and New Zealand.” Through Polyflor’s high performance in these categories, its flooring products are listed on the Ecospecifier database of environmentally preferable building materials. This green resource provides architects, designers and specifiers with an easy, effective way to select an environmentally sustainable floor covering. Polyflor has also achieved maximum rating points in the Green Building Council Australia (GBCA) and New Zealand Green Building Council (NZGBC) Green Star rating tools. Green Star rates the environmental and sustainable performance of a building and using Polyflor products certified by Ecospecifier’s GreenTag scheme can help the specifier achieve maximum points. The vinyl surface specialist is also a co-founding and funding member of Recofloor, the industry’s leading vinyl take-back scheme for recycling end of life post-consumer vinyl flooring. Through Recofloor, Polyflor can recycle installation off-cuts, uplifted flooring,old stock roll-end and samples that would normally end up in landfill. This material is then recycled into new flooring or other products, such as traffic cones. The majority of Polyflor’s product ranges are 100 per cent recyclable, with some of its floor coverings
continues to focus on reducing the environmental impact of its operations by providing a high level of durability, reliability, ease of maintenance and safe disposal,” says Richardson. “When choosing Environmentally Preferable Flooring from us, it’s key that our customers understand that using these green products means zero compromises in choice and functionality of the product. “Polyflor really is all about flooring design for a better environment,” says Richardson. And the company’s care for the environment is matched by its comprehensive customer service. “Our strength also lies in the quality of the products we make generally and in the rounded service that we offer to all our customers – whether architects, designers, specifiers or the general public.” Whatever the product, whatever the setting, Polyflor guides its customers through the entire process – from choosing the most suitable product for a project to its application and maintenance. Based near Manchester, England, Polyflor is a leading manufacturer of commercial floorcoverings, operating throughout the world. Launched in New Zealand and Australia in 1963, the company offers an extensive variety of flooring solutions to suit any need – from aged care facilities, offices, and retail to healthcare, education and residential. Options include slip resistance floors, acoustic solutions, wall cladding and rubber and sports flooring. For details on the broad Polyflor New Zealand vinyl flooring ranges and the company’s dedication to a healthy planet, email: sales@polyflor.co.nz, alternatively head online: www.polyflor.co.nz
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Project Synergy, CSIRO
Location: Acton, ACT
Architect: BVN
THE X-BOX FACTOR With its X-shaped arrangement for workspaces and the box-like form of the research laboratories, the new Synergy building makes an active contribution to organisational changes CSIRO was implementing
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Below:Synergy is a new gateway building on the CSIRO’s Black Mountain campus in ACT. Architects BVN’s design creates two distinct forms for the two main functional requirements of the building – the workspaces and the integral Physical Containment (PC2) research laboratories.
While there are a number of obstacles that have to be overcome when a company or other entity wants to implement organisational change, one of these may be particularly difficult to resolve says architect Julian Ashton, principal at BVN Architecture. “So often you get a push for organisational change, yet the building the organisation occupies won’t provide the mechanism to do that,” he says. But the opposite could be said for Synergy, a building BVN designed for CSIRO’s Black Mountain campus overlooking Canberra. “During the development of Synergy, CSIRO went through a transformational organisational phase that called for greater visibility and transparency, and workplaces that were highly collaborative,” says Ashton. The 15,000m2 Synergy was to house a large number of people previously working in traditional office space in satellite buildings. And this meant bringing together two quite distinct functions – complex laboratory spaces and workplace areas – into one building. “The name Synergy is very apt, as the building needed to accommodate these disparate elements. A lot of the conversation and discussion about the building was around the interplay between the two – having the junction between them highly visible, highly engaged and highly interactive.” On top of that, the 4000m2 corner site was very much at the centre of the campus, so Synergy was to be a gateway building, establishing a public interface with the campus. BVN’s resolution of this complex set of demands, was to create a strikingly different form for each of the two functional space requirements – an X-shaped building for workplaces and a box form for the research laboratories. The laboratory building is clad in Equitone fibre cement panels in a red oxide colour, and includes a 3-storey high glazed section that makes research activities visible to passers-by. “It’s quite deliberate that the workspace form is different to the research space,” says Ashton. “The
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X-shape allows almost 360° views over the Black Mountain region, along with maximum penetration
positioned on the other side of the X,” says Ashton. But while transparency and visibility between
of daylight into the interior. The geometry creates a series of neighbourhoods or clusters within the
the two functional spaces were requirements, there also had to be a high degree of isolation
internal open planning.”
between them to meet the government’s Physical
The X-shape also provided the opportunity to create a connection that gave a high degree of
Containment 2 (PC2) certification standards. This was achieved by inserting dedicated stairs
transparency between the two functional spaces. This was achieved by placing an atrium between
inside an enclosed link atrium placed alongside the main atrium, so that laboratory staff could move
the legs of the X close to the research space, and
between floors in the research building without
then glazing the internal walls of the laboratories. Stairs and ramps winding through the atrium pro-
having to go through security protocols. “We were able to make that a highly transpar-
vide the main circulation pathway through the four workplace floors, while also providing opportunities
ent glazed space, which is probably one of the first times that has been done, particularly within
for bump meetings. “At the centre of the X is where the kitchenette
Australia, because there are a lot of regulations around that, and around what materials you can
and amenities for each floor were placed, while there are meeting rooms and communal spaces
have and the airflow movement that can occur. “But we worked closely with the regulatory
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Below:A glazed entrance slot connects the box-like laboratory building on the left to the X-shaped workplace building on the right, and leads to an atrium between the arms of the X. Black thermal chimneys above draw air through the building to naturally ventilate the workspaces. Right:Perforated, folded aluminium blades on the workplace building provide shading while still allowing views out.
Left:Stairs winding up through the atrium space provide the main circulation pathway between floors, and encourage casual bump meetings. Access to the workplace areas is on the right, while glazed panels on the left mean the research laboratories are secure but still highly visible. Left, lower:Stairs through the link atrium in the research building were designed as a controlled environment, allowing laboratory staff to move between floors without having to go through security protocols each time. Right:Louvres at the top of the atrium, near the mid-point of the X, allow hot air to be drawn up from the floors below and exhausted out of the building through the thermal chimneys.
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Left:The coloured blades on the exterior of the upper floors of the workplace building are positioned towards the top of the windows for shading, leaving the lower section of the windows open to views. Left, lower:Kitchenettes, amenities and casual meeting areas are dotted around the atrium. Section and ground floor plan:1 Entry/reception, 2 Office workplace, 3 Cafe, 4 Circulation atrium, 5 Link atrium, 6 PC2 Research laboratory, 7 Plant room, 8 Smoke exhaust, 9 Thermal chimney
authorities to enable us to do that because we thought it really important for people to see the movement of researchers up and down the stairs.” It was also important that the building embodied the ESD role within CSIRO. The most visible manifestation of this are the two black thermal chimneys above the main atrium, which allow the building to be naturally ventilated. Windows and louvres are linked into the building management system and open up in the right conditions. And as the chimneys heat up, they will then draw air through the building. Ashton says the overall design of the building helped enable the transformational change CSIRO wanted to implement. “They came from an environment with a lot of silos hidden away,” he says. “We turned that on its head so the science became highly visible, while at the same time making sure the building worked really well as a research space.”
Architecture/Interior BVN Landscape designer ASPECT Studios Project manager RPS Project Management Construction manager/builder Laing O’Rourke Structural/façade engineer Taylor Thomson Whitting Mechanical/ESD Steensen Varming (Aust) Civil/traffic/electrical/security/comms/acoustic/fire Aurecon Hydraulic THCS BCA/fire engineering AE&D Accessibility Eric Martin & Associates FF&E RGC Consulting Pty Ltd Story by Paul Taylor Photography by John Gollings
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SECTION FOCUS EDUCATION
LEARNING EXPERIENCES When you promote a more open and flexible approach to education, school facilities need to follow suit
Project Marlborough Primary School
Location: Chelsea, London
Architect: Dixon Jones
VERTICAL VIRTUOSITY Cascading terraces provide pupils at Chelsea’s Marlborough Primary School with light-filled classrooms and expansive outside play and learning areas
Previous pages:Marlborough Primary School redevelopment in Chelsea creates an inclusive and inspiring 21st Century learning environment along with a commercial building and pedestrian link. The scheme replaces a Victorian school which had stood on the site since 1878. Left:The street elevations command a strong civic presence and feature robust brick and stone detailing influenced by the original Victorian school. Right:The community entrance to the school engages positively with the wider public, whilst the pedestrian link beside the new commercial building increases the previously restricted access between local streets.
While the nature of today’s schools and what goes on inside them undoubtedly has little in common with what passed as education 140 years ago, there are still some schools that have had to shoehorn modern educational practices into buildings that date back a couple of centuries. Until recently, Marlborough Primary School in Chelsea had been one such school – occupying a Victorian building that had been on its site since 1878. But the building‘s replacement programme by architects Dixon Jones has propelled the school dramatically into the future, providing an environment that allows pupils to enjoy all the flexibility, openness and variety of 21st century pedagogy. Project architect Paul Jolly says the extremely challenging redevelopment brief was the product of an unusually convoluted planning negotiation,
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which included creating a temporary school to accommodate pupils while the new building was being constructed. “With limited opportunities for expansion, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea concluded the original Victorian School was no longer capable of supporting their needs. In addition to facilities for a larger two-form-entry school requiring over 2500m2 of playgrounds, the brief also called for a new commercial building for office and retail, and a pedestrian link to be provided across the site,” says Jolly. “The challenge was, therefore, how to achieve this significant increase in density across the confined urban site whilst creating a fitting replacement for the original Victorian school.” Added to this were the constraints posed by a
These pages:Large rooflights flood natural light into circulation spaces and the communal hall areas on the ground floor.
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10-storey apartment building to the east, contrasted with a 5-storey party wall to the west.
ground floor. Retractable partitioning separating these two dynamic hall spaces means the whole of
“These massing constraints resulted in a stepped
the ground floor can be opened into a single space
section across the site, establishing a series of cascading ‘garden terraces’ that offer a rich diversity of
for large communal events. “Large rooflights bring natural daylight deep into
external spaces located off classrooms. The school is organised around this vertical section, starting
the heart of the plan to enliven the communal hall areas below and the circulation spaces running
with the youngest pupils (3-5 years) at ground floor
alongside the atrium,” says Jolly.
through to junior pupils (9-11 years) at the top.” This arrangement also allowed for the main hall
Classrooms at each level are positioned on the edge of the terraces, with sliding doors opening
– for assemblies and dining – and a large multiuse space to form the school’s social heart on the
directly onto the external learning and play areas. As well as promoting exercise and sport, the
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Below:Facilities at the new school provide for a larger primary school, a full time nursery and an autism centre, accommodating 458 pupils in total. Below, right:Classrooms are bathed in natural light with large fixed windows facing the street and opening windows with facade louvres providing natural ventilation via the playgrounds.
terraces are landscaped so children can experience the benefits of nature despite the city location. The landscaping includes raised tree planters, productive garden areas for the schools ‘growing club’– including a greenhouse, planters and com-
and the wider surroundings, with the green glazed brick and circular windows referencing the colourful 1911 Michelin House nearby.” The local authority also required a sustainable design, and Dixon Jones responded with a low-
posting wormery – and trailing plants and espalier pear trees behind the timber pergola screens on the
energy passive approach to minimise running costs and reduce the need for future maintenance.
rooftop playgrounds.
Having the classrooms alongside the cascading roof terraces allows them to be naturally ventilated,
“Extensive dialogue with the local planning authority ensured the proposed massing and the masonry detailing with its characteristic stone banding complemented both the original school
while the generous floor-to-ceiling heights allow deep daylight penetration, reducing the need for internal lighting.
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Left:The arrangement of cascading terraces created 2825m2 of external learning and play areas, including productive garden areas for the school’s ‘growing club’.
With its expanded replacement building, Marlborough Primary School has increased its
Left, lower:Classrooms at each level have sliding doors which open directly onto the external learning and play areas.
cascading terraces have increased the external play area from 1585m2 in the old site plan to 2825m2
primary school intake, as well as now accommodating a full time nursery and an autism centre – providing for a total of 458 pupils. In addition, the
with the new school building. “Also, in contrast to the old school which stood
behind foreboding brick boundary walls, the new building engages with the community with a welcoming entrance and playground gates,” says Jolly. “The school supports a range of extra-curricular activities to help families with working parents. It’s also designed to have a range of out-of-hours community uses, including meeting facilities, ballet classes and a 5-a-side football club which extend the building’s use beyond the normal school day.”
Section and ground floor plan:1 Main reception, 2 Entrance hall, 3 Multi-use space, 4 Main hall, 5 Classroom (3-5y), 6 Community room, 7 Special Education Needs support, 8 School kitchen, 9 External play and outdoor learning; A Retail, B office reception, C Pedestrian link
Project:Marlborough Primary School Location:Chelsea, London Architect:Dixon Jones Client:Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Design and build contractor:Mace Project manager:Lendlease Quantity surveyor:Gleeds Structural engineer:Waterman Structures Mechanical & electrical:Arup Sustainability:Arup Acoustic consultant:Sandy Brown Associates Fire engineering:Exova Warrington Fire Access consultant:David Bonnett Associates BREEAM Consultant:ADP Architecture Landscape architect:MacGregor Smith Brickwork, cast stone:Lesterose
Roofing system:Axter Wilotekt-Plus Play surfaces:Specialist Sports Products Windows, doors, curtain wall, rooflights:Schueco Rainscreen cladding:Trespa Meteon Bricks:School – Freshfield Lane Danehill Yellow; Commercial building – Ibstock Ashdown Bexhill Dark Acoustic ceilings, rafts, baffles:Rockfon Movable acoustic wall partition:London Wall Rubber flooring:Nora Carpets:Milliken Story by Paul Taylor Photography by Paul Riddle
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Project King’s School Centennial Building
Location: Auckland
Architect: Warren and Mahoney
TOMORROW CALLING The welcoming new King’s School Centennial Building references the school’s past and looks to its future with fresh architectural thinking in terms of student learning, cross-campus connections and pride of place
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Below:The elegant facade of the new Centennial Building at King’s School offers a transparent welcome to students, parents and teachers alike. The modern learning facility was designed by architects Warren and Mahoney.
Open-plan, young children learning facilities have many advantages, but close connection to the teacher and a strong sense of place aren’t always among them. The King’s School Centennial Building offers the school open, flexible spaces but not at the expense of individual classrooms. Perhaps the key word in terms of school design isn’t so much openness as flexibility. The new Centennial Building by architects Warren and Mahoney presents a major new facility at the heart of the school. It brings the school an additional 5000m2 of large, light-filled classrooms, music studios and breakout areas. Headmaster Tony Sissons says that while there were many requirements to consider, core to the brief to Warren and Mahoney was the importance of human relationships in a school environment – particularly those between student and teacher. “I’ve always believed students need to maintain a close relationship with the classroom teacher and have a strong connection with a single class. I don’t believe the trend towards open-plan learning environments is beneficial to young children’s learning.” “This four-level, state-of-the-art flagship building at the heart of our school allows a flow from large light-filled individual classrooms, which provide a sense of place, into open flexible spaces,” says Sissons. “The design offers the best of both worlds – it continues to offer personalised teaching in a classroom setting but also allows students to work collaboratively in groups outside the classroom.” The central location, scale and brief for the Centennial Building provided the opportunity to both create optimal learning environments and improve the connectivity of the school, says Warren and Mahoney project architect Sarah Hewlett-Diprose. The building interior is crisscrossed by a central atrium and a pedestrian internal street running the length of the building. Bridges and stairs connect areas across these three level-high accessways. From the ground floor up, the more flexible openplan spaces front onto the street, feeding off and adding to the dynamism and energy of the space. State of the art natural lighting design and acoustics
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Left:Fins on the north face of the building provide shading, acoustic separation and evoke a sense of outward connection. are features of the building, and the latter helps mitigate noise levels within the open spaces. “Acoustic performance was a key functional criteria for material selection in both the typical classrooms / breakout areas and specialist music rooms,” says Hewlett-Diprose. “For example, 50mm thick quiet-space panels are utilised throughout the internal street in conjunction with acoustic ceiling tiles. This was in recognition of the proximity of noisier more collaborative focused learning environments and the hard concrete and brick surfaces of adjoining existing buildings. Both the atrium and the internal street play important roles in the wider school environment, too. The atrium entry creates a new formal entry to the school and is highly visible from Portland Road. “By providing a clear new public address, the building has a transparent school-to-community connection,” says Hewlett-Diprose. “It offers permeability into the life of the school through street-facing architecture which is clear and inviting.” There are no fences separating the community from the Portland road entry, rather there is a series of concrete platforms and seats with integrated planting, the design navigating around an existing mature Pohutakawa tree, inviting the community in. Construction of the Centennial Building provided the opportunity to return the adjacent Towers building to its original design, demolishing a late addition that had linked across to the Hanna building, which was replaced as part of this project. Now on arrival at the school’s main entry, staff, students and visitors encounter new site lines between buildings which had previously abutted one another. The history of the site is acknowledged with reference to the original Hanna building through the materiality and modulation of the north elevation of the Centennial Building, the installation of the original Hanna clock in the centre of the new building and finally the use of recycled kauri rafters to form the timber fins that provide a degree of enclosure to breakout spaces within the internal street. “The existing campus has a particular arrangement and massing that confers a sense of ‘historical gravitas’ across the site,” says Hewlett-Diprose. “Our design approach has been to reinterpret the sense of permanence, clarity and order in a less formal way. The architecture of the new facility provides a clear structural rhythm that reinterprets the order of the wider King’s School built environment.” And now, for the first time, all the school’s buildings are well connected. This was achieved by the use of bridges linking the new facility to existing buildings,
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Left:A soaring atrium and pedestrian street intersect in the Centennial Building. Bridges and stairs connect across these wayfinding, light-filled voids. Acoustic ceiling panels are just part of an acoustic strategy that allows for a certain amount of energetic hubbub in the open areas, but keeps things extremely quiet where they need to be. Facing page:Heart of light – natural light is maximised throughout the interior, with extensive floor-to-ceiling glazing, a minimum ceiling height of 2.7m in classrooms and high level glazing incorporated in the atrium and internal street.
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some extending the lines of its internal street. “The Centennial Building also reflects the materi-
powder-coated aluminium louvres provide shading. “Non-functional decoration is eschewed in favour
ality of the existing campus and acknowledges the sensitive residential environment through its modular
of sculptural strength, and concessions to current ‘design fashion’ were also avoided,” says Hewlett-
arrangement and scale of materials – effectively
Diprose. “It is important that while the Centennial
breaking down the large building into smaller scale elements,” says Hewlett-Diprose. “The exterior
Building is inevitably of its time, it doesn’t take on a stylistic language that will become dated down
material palette of red brick, high performance glass, white terracotta cladding and baguettes also form a
the track.” In terms of internal orientation, colour has been
highly durable and low maintenance envelope.”
utilised throughout the building as a wayfinding
In response to its wider surroundings, ceramic frit glass is utilised in strategic areas to provide
tool, which has proved particularly beneficial for the younger students. Each floor has its own feature
privacy to residential neighbours. And the building is as enduring in terms of looks
colour, utilised in both flooring and acoustic panel colour selection: green on the ground level, maroon
as it is in material durability – the former achieved through visual simplicity and order in a design
at entry level, gold on the next floor up, and blue on the top. The carpet pattern, in particular the
where every element has a specific functional role. For example, the dynamic terracotta clad fins to the north elevation provide shading from the westerly sun and acoustic separation between adjacent classrooms when external windows are open. The
extensive feature colour areas, reflect the increased collaboration that occurs in the more informal transitional spaces. “There is no doubt that the building has brought our students many educational benefits,” says
proud, north-facing fins also symbolise the building’s outward looking focus. In another instance of the building’s merger of form and function, the mesh service gantries double as shading for the extensive northern glazing. On
headmaster Tony Sissons. “The most obvious day-to-day benefit is the more considered, dynamic design of teaching spaces as well as the very best of today’s technology in terms of air flow, natural light, and acoustic design.
the top floor – where shading is not provided by the modulation of floors above or service gantries –
“The Centennial Building has certainly created an exceptional teaching and learning environment.”
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This page Sliding doors open the individual classrooms to less defined spaces suited to a variety of learning experiences that encourage easy collaboration. The open-plan spaces in turn look onto the central street. Facing page, top:Students in the modern facility benefit from classroom spaces with high-end acoustics, ample natural light and stunning outlooks. Facing page, lower In keeping with the classrooms, open areas and connecting spaces, this double-height music studio – one of three in the building – features sophisticated acoustics.
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Left:The new building has strongly impacted its campus surroundings. As well as replacing the Hanna building it has improved natural sightlines right through the school, while bridges link previously disconnected buildings.
Project:King’s School Centennial Building, Auckland Architect:Warren and Mahoney Architects; project principal – John Coop, project architect – Sarah Hewlett-Diprose; design director – Andrew Barclay Civil, mechanical, structural and electrical engineer, project manager and fire consultant:Beca Quantity surveyor:Rider Levett Bucknall Acoustic engineer:Marshall Day Acoustics Landscaping:Patrick Corfe Landscape Architects Cladding:Austral brick, Vogue Range; terracotta tiles from Thermosash Terracotta fins:Moeding Baguette white terracotta fixed vertical fins from Jacobsens Louvres:Louvretec 300mm aluminium Maxi blades, powdercoat finish Main roof:Dimond Brownbuilt 900 long run metal roofing Secondary roof:Equus modified double layer bituminous membrane and gutters, with metal chip finish Glazing system:Four-sided structurally bonded unitised glazed façade suite with Low E glass, from Thermosash Floors:Exposed concrete with 5% black oxide; Interface carpet tiles in Exposed finish, from Inzide Commercial; Desso carpet tiles in Rock/ Salt from Jacobsens Feature flooring:American White Oak timber flooring, from Rosenfeld Kidson Classroom/display walls :Autex Composition in Lime, Chilli Red, Clay, Azure and Silver, from Autex Industries Music classroom walls:Autex Quietspace overlaid with
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Vertiface, in Chilli Red and Silver, from Autex Industries; Decortech custom slotted plywood panel over black Autex acoustic blanket, from Decortech Breakout area walls:Advance Fitnice Wall Finish, Time in Town range, from Advance Flooring Ceiling treatments:Typical classrooms – Armstrong Optima, from Forman Building Systems; music classrooms – Ecophon Master Ds, from Holden Architectural; internal street – Decortech plywood multigroove ceiling panel over black Autex acoustic blanket, from Decortech; circulation – Asona design panel perforated plasterboard Paints:Dulux Peplum Quarter and Dulux Glenbrook Lighting:Energy Light, Energyline Extrusion, Fagerhult Heating:Air handling units by Temperzone; variable air volume units by Holyoake; fans by Fantech – all sourced from Air Mark Services Classroom furniture:Furnware Blind:Techno 5000 Sunscreen Blind, from Window Treatments Story by Charles Moxham Photography by Jamie Cobel
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INTERFACE. THE DESIGNERS CHOICE. • • • •
INNOVATIVE SUSTAINABLE INTERIORS
15 YEAR PERFORMANCE WARRANTY – INCLUDES CASTOR CHAIRS LIFE-TIME ANTI-MICROBIAL BUILT INTO THE CARPET TILE 3RD PARTY QUALITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL CERTIFICATION 100% RECYCLABLE FROM NEW ZEALAND Rototuna School HAMILTON
100% DYEBATCH MERGEABLE CARPET TILE MADE FROM OLD FISHING NETS
Te Marae TE PAPA, WELLINGTON
25+ MILLION PEOPLE, 20 YEARS
ISO 14064-1:2006 • certified organisation
PWC Building CHRISTCHURCH
LIFE-TIME ANTIMICROBIAL BUILT INTO THE CARPET TILE
Golf Course WAINUI
100% RECYCLABLE FROM NZ
0800 800 656 www.inzide.co.nz
SEAT OF LEARNING Given the King’s School Centennial Building’s flexible learning spaces, innovative furniture solutions were required – specialist Furnware was involved from the start The new King’s School Centennial Building’s innovative learning spaces required fresh thinking on the furniture front, says Hamish Whyte, owner of specialist school furniture company Furnware. “Furnware worked with school principal Tony Sissons and his team to design, manufacture and deliver several advanced solutions for the project.” These include the ergonomic Bodyfurn® Sled Chair for student seating, flexible tables and tables with writable surfaces, soft furnishings, and mobile Teacher’s Hub workstations that foster connections not barriers.
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“The Furnware difference is in the entire package. We listen closely to what a school’s needs are, create effective solutions and help clients visualise what the spaces will look like with our 3D App.” Furnware designs and makes its quality products in New Zealand and offers outstanding service. For details, contact Furnware, phone: (06) 879 9170, email: customerassistance@furnware.co.nz, or alternatively head online: www.furnware.co.nz
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This page:School furniture specialist Furnware designed and manufactured the Bodyfurn® Sled Chair, the Endeavour flexible table solution and the mobile Teacher’s Hub as part of their total furniture delivery package for the King’s School Centennial Building by Warren and Mahoney.
TOP OF THE CLASS On a facade design where function and aesthetics go hand in hand, the powdercoated Sun Control Overhead Louvres on King’s School Centennial Building are a crowning touch
Various shade strategies were employed on the new King’s School Centennial Building, from the modulated facade to the mesh service gantries. The top floor, however, required a special treatment in the form of architectural louvres – these not only shade the classroom directly below but also bring a sleek aesthetic element to complete the facade. For the King’s School project, architects Warren and Mahoney specified 300mm Maxi Louvres in a Bracket Fixed configuration, says Louvretec contract manager Terry Elliot. “The large sun louvres are fixed at a 45 degree pitch for the most effective sun control – providing strategic shade while at the same time admitting plenty of natural light to the classrooms below.” Louvretec’s 300mm Maxi Louvres are a large, airfoil shape with very good span widths. The louvres are constructed of aluminium, making them strongly resistant to wear and tear – an imperative given the building’s focus on sustainability. “Our Sun Louvre blades can be fixed overhead, such as here at King’s School, or fixed in lengths that run horizontally or vertically on the face of a building,” says Elliot. “This configuration works well on both residential and commercial buildings. Motorised and hand operable options are also available. With 20 years in the business, Louvretec offers a variety of designer louvre options. The nationwide company provides 3D renders at design stage and has its own in-house professional installers. “Louvretec systems, our own proprietary brackets included, are engineered to an architect’s precise requirements. They are distinguished by aesthetic and functional design, high quality and durability.” For details nationwide, contact Louvretec NZ phone: (09) 415 49 49, email: info@louvretec.co.nz, or alternatively head online: www.louvretec.co.nz
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This page:Maxi Louvre Blades provide sun control and a sleek aesthetic for the Centennial Building at King’s School, Auckland.
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SECTION FOCUS HOSPITALITY
PERSONAL ATTRACTION
In an ever more competitive industry, boutique and chain hotel brands are looking to create one-off environments that are drawcards in their own right
Project West Hotel
Location: Sydney
Architect: Fitzpatrick & Partners
Interior designer Woods Bagot
FACE OF CHANGE Guests at West Hotel activate its ‘Chanel purse’ facade as their movements, the opening or closing of drapes, or lighting choices animate the room-size windows
Previous pages:West Hotel offers travellers a unique stay in the heart of Sydney. Tucked between two buildings in the western corridor between Sydney Harbour and the CBD, the design has a cohesive expression, from the faceted facade through to room interior detailing. Left:Players on a stage – guest movements animate West Hotel’s one-off facade. Each window is the full size of the room behind it. Facing page:At the point of arrival, native flora is referenced in a bespoke botanical artwork behind the minimalist reception desk. Designed to be immersive, the double-height lobby features charcoal brickwork walls and a geometric timber floor pattern that references the distinctive facade. A sculptural lighting piece functions as a cloud-like installation within the space.
Hotels often rely on their great setting or proximity to retail or commercial hubs to draw guests to their establishment. The West Hotel in Sydney has both these advantages, but creative design – inside and out – make the contemporary, 182-room hotel an attraction in its own right. The brief was to design a building that responded to the character of the Western edge of the Sydney CBD, yet popped out as offering something quite unique, says James Fitzpatrick, principal of Fitzpatrick & Partners, the studio that undertook the design of the boutique hotel. “The design borrows ideas from the surrounding buildings of this part of the city, but then abstracts these elements to create something special,” says Fitzpatrick. “From the beginning, it was the people using the building and how this was represented in the architecture that would drive the design and create that unique sparkle, that something special.” The diamanté studded or ‘Chanel handbag’ façade concept was born from this thinking, as a
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way to visually define and animate every room at the hotel as part of its visual attraction. “Essentially, every room-size window frame acts as a proscenium to the guest room’s internal activities, and this creates the energy of the building,” says Fitzpatrick. “Whether it’s lights on or lights off, curtains open or closed, voyeuristic or private, this variability of use creates the variety of visual expression which is the character of the building.” The individual prisms have two solid aluminium facets to minimise solar gain from the north. Plus, the generally square modules were halved for a more vertical shape on the far left side of the front facade. This creates an accent that complements the verticality of a heritage building alongside. However, the one-of-a-kind faceted facade appears on the other sides of the building too, as well as in the oasis-like atrium. It is even echoed in the shaping of the roof plant, as several adjacent taller buildings look down on the hotel. To let the drama of the facade and the movement
in the rooms predominate, the architect kept the colour and material palettes simple and elegant. The hotel’s interior design was by Woods Bagot, with senior associate Jacqui Senior at the helm. “The hotel’s siting and architecture are unusual for Sydney, qualities that were eagerly taken up by the interiors team,” says Senior. “We really embraced its difference, and drew from the crystalline geometric pattern of the façade in creating a consistent story across the interiors scheme.” The patterning appears in different guises and scales – from the floor patterns in the restaurant
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and entry, to the faceted faces of the marble bar, to its use on lift lobby screens, balustrades and even on bedheads in the guest rooms. “Sydney is such a bright, light-filled city and its hotels traditionally focus on the views out,” says Senior. “Here, we took a different approach and instead focussed on that rich internal experience that’s done so well in Europe.” At eight storeys high and open to the elements, the hotel’s mini-rainforested courtyard atrium is a key element within this design strategy. The atrium is visually connected with both the hotel lobby and
Facing page and above:The restaurant offers casual dining along the street frontage and looks the other way into the mini-rainforested, eight-storey open-air atrium. The ceiling’s exposed services and minimalist black fins, contrast the plush velvet seating and marble floor. Following pages:In the bar, a monolithic emerald green terrazzo bench is set against a backdrop of atrium foliage.
restaurant, and is overlooked by guest rooms. Referencing the open-air space, Woods Bagot’s global design leader Domenic Alvaro says organic design and lush-luxe are siblings in an international trend to bring natural beauty and its calming effects into high quality design. “Contact with nature is both a basic human and universal need,” says Alvaro. “Biophilic design, which integrates architecture and nature – in this instance, urban nature – is increasingly supported by research findings on its wellbeing benefits.” Overall, the interiors scheme references the
colours and textures of the Australian landscape. A palette of richly dark eucalyptus greens and greys are the colours of the bush, with deep blues and greens referencing the harbour. Guest rooms feature a sophisticated lightindustrial aesthetic. The detailing of materials and form are highly considered with soft, dark tones in the bespoke carpet, walnut and brass accents. “The end result is a building that sits comfortably within its CBD context,” says Fitzpatrick. “West Hotel is defined by how it is used, and the visual richness of its character and expression.”
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Facing page:The faceted facade appears on all external walls, including those of the lush, openair atrium. Right:Suites are finished with parquetry flooring and woven inlay carpets. Walnut timbers and brass details complement the plush materiality of furnishings. Framed glazed walls separate the bedroom from the lounge area, while the facade design is seen through the full-height lounge window.
Architect:James Fitzpatrick, Fitzpatrick & Partners; project architect Mathew Marr Interior designer:Sydney hotel leader,rJacqui Senior, Woods Bagot; design team, Lauren Tudor Construction:Multiplex Constructions Civil engineer:TTW Mechanical engineer:Equilibrium Electrical engineer:Hurley Palmer Flatt Quantity surveyor:Multiplex Landscaping:Sturt Nobel Fire consultant:Defire Hydraulic consultant:Warren Smith and Partners Specialist lighting:Point of View Facade engineer:Surface Design Planner:Ethos Urban Accessible consultant:MGAC Prismatic facade:Aluminium and glass Cladding:Vitacore G2 aluminium and Equitone fibre cement in Natura finish Flooring:Entry – Australian hardwood timber by Top Knot carpentry; restaurant – marble, various, by Deemah Stone; concrete floors – French Grey with Sydney White, by Pangea; Aggregate; bedrooms – custom carpet designed by
Woods Bagot, supplied by Modius Carpets; suites – timber parquet by Havwods Public area wallcoverings/treatments:Lobby wall – Austral Bricks Designa basalt slimline, shadowstone & lava stone; column and back wall cladding – routed MDF panels with a 2-pac polyurethane finish, from UTJ; timber batten restaurant ceiling; furniture veneer – walnut, from UTJ Paints:Ceiling in Luck, columns in Natural White, bathrooms in Blue Steel, corridors in Timeless Grey, all Dulux paints Lighting:Restaurant wall lights – Aticolo Float Light in Drunken Emerald; restaurant table lights – Neoz Owl 1; lobby feature pendant – Di Emme by Creative Solutions Story by Charles Moxham Photography – exteriors, John Gollings; interiors, Felix Forest
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Project Naumi Auckland Airport
Location: Auckland
Project designer: Muir Design Solutions
Interior designer: Material Creative
SONG OF THE TUI Playful, colourful, agile and even surprising, New Zealand’s brilliant Tui bird makes a perfect emblem for the fun, art-focussed Naumi Auckland Airport Hotel
In the competitive world of hospitality, it can be hard to stand out from the crowd. However, the recently opened Naumi Auckland Airport hotel offers a colourful, playful, even artistic way forward. Gaurang Jhunjhnuwala, CEO of Naumi Hotels ANZ, says the launch of the company’s first New Zealand hotel close to the country’s busiest airport was a significant step in responding to the needs of today’s discerning traveller. “Auckland is a bustling gateway for New Zealand
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as well as the wider Asia-Pacific region, yet the market for quirky, contemporary boutique hotels in this area was relatively untapped,” he says. “Naumi diversifies from your regular boutique hotel by combining aesthetics with functionality and creating bespoke experiences for our guests.” The hotel is a transformative reworking of a 1980s building by project designer David Muir, now of Muir Design Solutions, with the new hotel’s interiors by Material Creative.
Below:Naumi Auckland Airport Hotel’s tiled facade evokes the brilliant plumage of New Zealand’s Tui bird – a motif that runs right through the hotel. Facing page:A wall of gold leaves – evoking the Tui’s nape – backdrops the new reception. Facing page lower:Timber battens bring warmth to the welcoming lobby environment.
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“The original 1980s building that we started with is unrecognisable in the new hotel,” says Muir. “But, the existing structures did have good bones and the layout of the entry building and sprawling two-level buildings behind, ringing private gardens, were ideal for the hotel’s intimate, quirky feel.” However, the old entranceway and facade were completely upgraded and reworked by Muir, with new tile cladding approximating the light-catching sheen of the Tui bird’s plumage. “We refurbished and reroofed the entry canopy and introduced new lighting and signage to make a
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much more appropriate approach statement.” The existing entry lobby and glazed curtain wall also needed replacing, with the hotel entry angled to avoid a direct entry to reception and through to the rear – as required by the Feng Shui consultant. “Adding to the arrival experience, we repositioned various elements inside the lobby building, including the reception,” says Muir. “Previously tucked into a modest wall niche, this now takes rightful centre stage in the greater space.” The bar and dining area were also re-sited, with an existing internal steel spaceframe demolished
Previous pages and these pages The back-lit onyx bar is set against the back of the reception wall. The phrase in lights – ruffle your tail feathers – is an encouragement for guests to leave their rooms and enjoy the hotel’s wider ambience. Plush ceiling-to-floor drapes and a large chandelier are two of many luxe touches in the greater space.
and replaced with a skylight in the dining area. The hotel’s conference rooms and gymnasium were retained and refurbished, with input from both Muir Design Solutions and Material Creative. As well as the architectural rejuvenation of the public spaces, Muir stripped out, reworked and finished the hotel’s 193 rooms. Most original services were also replaced. All this was a tricky ask as the hotel kept trading throughout the staged refurbishment. Muir also refinished the existing pool and created fresh, verdant landscaping for the project. However, it’s the imaginative style of the hotel’s
interior design that really makes Naumi sing. Interior designer Toni Brandso says ‘absolutely no white’ was the first key directive to Material Creative, and the second was to create a unique boutique hotel, like no other in New Zealand. “At the same time, the design had to encompass the ideals of the Naumi brand – unexpected, playful, youthful and considered: a truly exhilarating experience and feast for all senses.” The native New Zealand Tui – with its cheeky personality and stunning plumage – was hit upon as the perfect motif. This theme runs right through the
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These pages:The Dottie suite, one of two designer-inspired suites in the art-inspired hotel, reflects the colourful, conceptual installation pieces by respected Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama.
hotel, starting from the cladding and the lobby. “The lobby’s centrepiece is a 24-carat gold
In fact, art plays a central role throughout, with commissioned artist Belynda Henry’s New
textured 6m high wall, representing the nape of the Tui, designed by Auckland creative studio the NY
Zealand landscapes fashioned into room rugs and Judi Bagust’s whimsical brush stroke paintings –
Art Department,” says Brandso. “Material Creative
intended to evoke the Tui’s birdsong – featuring in
designed the segmented cedar reception desk in front of the wall and underlit this to dramatic effect.”
the lounge and in the guest rooms. Most guest rooms are finished in one of four
Beyond the reception, the bar-bistro-lounge area makes an equally bold impact. The ‘Ruffle your tail
variations in colour patterns, mimicking the multcoloured iridescent sheen from the Tui’s feathers,
feather’ light installation is an invitation to guests to
and including rich brass accents.
socialise, rather than hide in their rooms. “In this public space, lush armchairs and circular
However, there are notable departures in the form of two designer-inspired Suites – Ziggy,
rugs soften edges, while firework chandeliers imbue a sense of luxe and excitement,” says Brandso.
inspired by the classic chevron and striped Missoni design, and Dottie, inspired by the Japanese artist
“Adding to its charm, the lounge walls feature 95 gold discs hand-painted with a feather pattern, also
Yayoi Kusama known for her colourful conceptual pieces. There are also four pink-hued Blush rooms
by the NY Art Department.”
which are equipped for extra pampering.
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Below:As part of the multi-facted project, guest rooms were rebuilt or refinished, the pool was retiled, and the gardens were also reworked.
Project:Naumi Auckland Airport Project designer:David Muir, Muir Design Solutions Interior design:Toni Brandso, Liv Patience, Liv Macfarlane, Material Creative Construction:CBC Construction Mechanical/electrical engineer::Norman Disney & Young Quantity surveyor:Cuesko Landscaping:Coastal Gardens Cladding:Resene X-200 membrane in Tuna; tilework from Tile Warehouse Flooring:Lobby – Balastina Ariostea tiles by Pietre from Tile Warehouse, Strutturata rug from Designer Rugs, Inzide tufted loop carpet tile from Urban Retreat, Luxury Vinyl Click; reception – Graduation wool carpet from Designer Rugs; suites – Ziggy Harrow Grafito floor tile from Tilespace Wall treatments:Reception – Gold Canvas feather wall by NY Art Department; lounge – cedar shingles; Ziggy Suite – Scion Groove wallpaper in Pebble/graphite Paints:Resene Lighting Tyke Linear by Novii Reception furniture:Kartell, Harrows, Jonathan Adler Additional furniture:Zanotta Artworks Belynda Henry; NY Art Dept; Judi Bagust Story by Charles Moxham Photography by Michelle Weir
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PRACTICE SAFE DESIGN. USE A CONCEPT. Petrula Vrontikis — Designer
ARTISTIC EXPRESSION The Naumi Auckland Airport Hotel offers guests a private, niche environment that celebrates art, quirkiness and the colours of the New Zealand Tui bird In a diverse hospitality market, the new Naumi Room balconies reflect the Tui’s sheeny plumage. Auckland Airport Hotel stands apart with a quirky These are in Resene Tiber, a deep teal, Resene theme, playful elements and colourful finishes. Cutty Sark, a blue-green, Resene Onahau, a pastel Project designer Muir Design Solutions and blue, and Resene Moby, a playful mid blue. interior designer Material Creative followed the Need concepts in a hurry? The balance of the exterior is painted in Resene international Naumi brand focus on individualistic, Tuna, a dignified grey. When using dark colours Trendsideas.com and register forhotel. your personal account. artistic themes for the private, well-situated outside, Resene recommends using a Resene Material Creative designer Toni Brandso says the CoolColour to reduce heat build up and stress. design took inspiration from our native Tui bird. For details, head online: www.resene.co.nz “Seemingly black from a distance, a closer save and share online: search inspection of this bird reveals shimmering arrays of 229842810 at Trendsideas.com metallic greens, purples and gold,” says Brandso.
Above:Ready to take flight – the exterior walls and balconies of the Naumi Auckland Airport Hotel are finished in an array of Resene paints that together evoke the sheeny plummage of the Tui bird.
Go to
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Project Morpheus Hotel
Location: Macau, China
Architect: Zaha Hadid Architects
HEART OF THE CITY A vanguard of architectural design, the Morpheus Hotel by Zaha Hadid Architects is the new five-star centrepiece of Macau’s City of Dreams resort
These pages:A fluid ‘net’ of structural beams forms the exoskeleton of the sculptural Morpheus Hotel in Macau by Zaha Hadid Architects. The glazed facade behind comprises 43,388m2 of high performance glass panels. Three organic voids create drama and connect hotel guests with the wider setting.
What to do when you want to break with a location’s tradition of copycat architecture? One bold way forward is to create a new design language. Melco Resorts & Entertainment commissioned Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) to design Morpheus as the fifth hotel in its City of Dreams resort development on tourist and gambling mecca Macau. In modern interpretations of Greek mythology, Morpheus is referred to as the god of dreams or sleep. Melco wanted Morpheus to be designed to ‘satisfy the dreams of luxury international travellers’.
In response, the high-end, five-star hotel itself looks like a dream of surreal architectural splendour. Historically, Macau buildings have referenced architecture styles from around the world. Morpheus, however, has evolved from its unique environment and site conditions as a new architecture expressly of the city, says ZHA’s project director Viviana Muscettola. Linked at ground level with the surrounding three-storey podium of the City of Dreams resort, Morpheus houses a lobby atrium, and 772 guest
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rooms, suites and sky villas. Public amenities include civic spaces, meeting and event facilities,
number of hotel rooms with external views and guarantees an equal room distribution on both
gaming rooms, restaurants, a spa and rooftop pool. When ZHA began working on the feasibility study
sides of the building. Running through the voids, a series of bridges
for Morpheus in 2012, the foundations of a stalled
create unique spaces for restaurants, bars and
project were already in place and three sides of the site was enclosed by construction, including the
guest lounges. In addition, 12 glass elevators provide guests with arresting views of Morpheus’
high rise resort hotel to the west. To the north was a six lane highway.
interiors and exterior as they travel skywards up the two internal towers.
“Vertical extrusion seemed logical as it addressed
Morpheus’ interior spaces called for a high
the two constraint sets: the restricted footprint and the dense, varied programme. This strategy
degree of adaptability to accommodate the varying spacial needs of its guest amenities. The hotel’s
also allowed Morpheus to be designed as a single volume with a fluid exoskeleton,” says Muscettola.
exoskeleton helped with this by creating generous, flexible interior spaces that are uninterrupted by
Within this form, two internal vertical circulation cores, or towers, are connected horizontally
supporting walls or columns. “This sculptural form has an intriguing, mys-
at podium and roof level, where dense accommodation was required. This generated a simple block, maximising the development envelope, with radiused edges, its height limited by a 160m aviation zone restriction.
terious allure because it makes no reference to traditional architectural typologies,” says the project director. “An alternative interpretation would be to see it as a gyrating abstraction of a triumphal arch or the west front of Notre-Dame de Paris – both
“The block was then punctuated with three diversely shaped voids, forming vortex-like urban windows that define the dramatic internal public spaces and create unique corner suites with spectacular views of both the atrium and the city.”
emphatic portals, like Morpheus.” And environmental engineering was naturally intrinsic to the sophisticated building. Solar gain is minimised by high performance glazing while the hotel’s exoskeleton provides additional screening
This architectural arrangement maximises the
from the sun. Plus, only zones used by guests and
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Below:Almost everything is a sculptural event in the modern hotel, including the internally lit marble reception area. Facing page:Like many of the hotel’s public spaces, this restaurant is tucked into the corners of a void that provides an open connection between the hotel’s interiors and the surrounding landscape.
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staff, such as lobbies, bridges and restaurants are served by air conditioning, not the atrium’s middle
water, while the intelligent building management system responds in real time to usage and environ-
zones. In addition, Melco Resorts specified long-life
mental conditions to minimise energy consumption. Lawrence Ho, chairman and CEO of Melco
materials throughout to limit requirements for
Resorts says that from the beginning, Melco shared
maintenance and replacement. The hotel’s exterior panel fabrication was procured locally, reducing
ZHA’s vision and drive to push boundaries. “Morpheus offers a journey of the imagination
transportation needs and making use of local skills and equipment.
– from the curved exterior to the dramatic interior spaces, it pleases the eye and excites the senses.”
Additional active solutions were implemented to increase energy efficiencies, including the air handling units with high efficiency variable speed water-cooled chillers and thermal wheel energy exchangers to recover energy from exhaust air. A water-to-water heat pump pre-heats domestic
Architects Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA); project directors – Viviana Muscettola, Michele Pasca di Magliano Developer Melco Resorts & Entertainment Local architect CAA City Planning & Engineering Consultants, Macau Quantity surveyor WT Partnership Structural engineering Buro Happold International Mechanical and electrical engineering J Roger Preston Fire engineering Arup Facade engineering Buro Happold International Facade contractor Kyotek
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Freeform exoskeleton cladding design Front Interior contractor – Lobby, Porte Cochere, atrium feature wall Pat Davie Lighting design Isometrix Acoustic consultant Shen Milson & Wilke, Hong Kong Traffic engineer MVA Hong Kong Lobby, Porte Cochere, atrium feature wall:Front Lifts:Otis Story by Charles Moxham Photography by Ivan Dupont, Virgile Simon Bertrand
Previous pages:The arresting L21 Chinese restaurant sits in one of the bridges that link the hotel’s two internal towers. Below:The rooftop pool offers an up-close-and-personal take on the hotel’s striking exoskeleton. Facing page:Six glass elevators in each of the hotels two internal towers provide guests with views across the atrium. The latter is flanked by feature walls of triangular metallic panels with light cells.
MARKET SECTOR REPORT HOTEL DESIGN
REDESIGNING THE BOX How do you design a hotel to successfully meet all the requirements of investor, operator and guests? Aedas Interiors executive director Greg Farrell – project designer on Auckland’s M Social – gives a designer and frequent guest perspective
For an owner, a hotel is an investment – it’s
Obviously setting your budget very early helps
a very commercial property. As much as it’s about theatre and drama and all those wonderful things, at
determine financial viability – looking at the market you’re going into, understanding what you want to
the end of the day you should always come back to
achieve in your returns. In terms of the vision for a particular hotel, posi-
the financial viability of the model you’re looking at. There are two types of owners in my experience. There’s the owner who’s an investment owner, who is looking at the building as just an investment and perhaps a quicker ROI. And then there’s more of an owner-operator where ROI may not be quite as fast because they’re a true hotelier.
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tioning is a very, very important consideration. Is it in a prime location and therefore looking to be a more luxury type property and a higher end brand, which then starts to reinforce the design? Or is it not such a great location, so you’re aiming for something that’s more lifestyle and
These pages: Aedas Interiors executive director Greg Farrell spends 150-200 nights a year in a hotel room – an experience he draws on when designing hotels such as M Social on Auckland’s waterfront. M Social illustrates a key factor in his design approach – creating a sense of place.
quirky that would entice guests to stay there. Looking at the competition that’s already in the
In international terms, I’d consider M Social is a low end five star. But these days people are using
market when you come into a city helps determine how an owner may position a new property. And
different terms – they’re talking about lifestyle, they’re talking about mid-scale/upscale/luxury.
that may align you with a particular operator, which then may align you with a particular architect or designer as well.
M Social is very much about lifestyle, about creating something that’s a little bit different. It’s light, it’s vibrant, it’s engaging – that was the core fundamental behind the brand.
Lifestyle brands M Social is a new lifestyle brand that is part of
Room planning
Millennium Copthorne’s stable of hotel operations. Chairman Kwek Leng Beng wanted to create a new
As interior designers we think about the real human scale of hotels, and about how people inter-
lifestyle brand targeting global nomads – millennials and people with a different mindset looking to be
act ergonomically within the rooms. We think about how to create a sense of space within the room,
more socially engaged when they travel. This particular property was a refurbishment of a
especially in a small room. I often ask the question when we start a new
building that had been through many lives. For this emerging brand, it’s in a fantastic location, right on the edge of the wonderful vibrancy of Auckland’s Viaduct area.
project, how many ways can you try and redesign the box, which is fundamentally what you’ve got? At this end of the market, creating a sense of space is hugely important. Which is why we look at
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ways in which we can open bathrooms up. And we create bathrooms that can open and
The guest experience Other fundamentals that are hugely important
close, so they can be private if, say, you have a twin room. But if you’re a single guest, whether for
to me as a hotel designer are things like lighting –
business or for leisure, and you’re in a room with a
where you switch lights on and off, and where they are positioned so, for example, reading lights don’t
spectacular view, you want to be able to stand in the shower and enjoy the view.
glare down on your face. These are things you don’t think about unless
We can also take a lead from some of the smaller properties in Europe, where they’re not creat-
you’ve stayed in a lot of hotels – and I spend
ing enclosed wardrobes but have hanging areas.
anything between a 150 and 200 nights a year in a hotel room. They’re things that don’t contribute to
People don’t mind as long as they’ve got the space. At the luxury end of the scale, one of the things
the overall ambience, but do contribute to the guest experience, so people come away and feel that it
we look for is multiple ways of moving around the room. Everybody is individual in their habits, so in a
was just effortless staying in a particular room.
luxury room you can create multiple ways you can walk from the dressing area to the bedroom to the bathroom, and not have dead ends.
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All the little things become hugely important to the guest experience before you even start thinking about what it’s going to look like. I often say, when you’re searching for a hotel, how
Below:Bathrooms present a major challenge for hotel designers. Enclosing the bathroom in a glass box allows natural light into the back of the room, while blinds give flexibility for the bathroom to become a more private space as needed. Facing page:Hotel operators are looking beyond traditional four and five star hotels and creating new lifestyle brands – such as M Social and Indigo – to attract global nomads and millennials.
much time do you spend looking at the architecture as opposed to looking at photographs of the room.
Then, for example, you don’t necessarily need a desk in a room any more. You might have a dining
And after your stay, you may not be able to describe the architecture in detail, but I guarantee you’ll be
table that doubles as a desk. That’s nicer – if you’re travelling together as couple, you might want to
able to pick up on all the things in the room that
dine together in the room.
were wrong.
And is a business centre required? They’re typically non-revenue generating – so should you
Business v leisure I’ve been saying for a long time that business
give that space to something that’s more revenue generating? Because people can now do business
and leisure are merging. And these days with
just sitting in the lobby.
devices and the way we live our lives, they are getting even closer.
Which comes back to the premise of M Social – people multi-use the public spaces like the F&B
I’ll stay at a resort but I travel with my iPad and I’ll sit by the pool and – if I’m allowed to – I’ll read
areas. They don’t just dine there. Those spaces are merging to become combined functional spaces.
my emails. So providing connectivity and integrating technology in a seamless way has been one of
A sense of place
the key challenges for design for the past 15 years.
The familiarity you want when you stay at a hotel
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comes back to the ergonomics. So people are not having to re-learn a hotel each time they check in. Then creating something that’s different and unique comes back to that sense of place. There’s nothing worse than getting on a plane and travelling for 12 hours and then checking into a hotel that looks exactly the same as the one in the city you’ve just left. So creating a sense of place is one of the things we really focus on – understanding culture, understanding the arts, understanding the location in which the hotel is being placed. For M Social, I knew this hotel building from my
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growing up here in Auckland, so it was about trying to create a reference back to the 1970s, to the house I grew up in. The selection of the woods, for example, some of the chairs and furniture – that’s one part of it. Also the fact that it’s on the waterfront meant there had to be a nautical aspect to it, there had to be a reference to the City of Sails. And then there are certain elements in the design, that depending how you look at them, can look like little kiwi feet or they can look like the masts and the rigging you see around here. We leave that up to the guest to interpret what they see.
Above:Even more traditional five star hotels such as The Langham, Shenzhen are re-thinking the way guest rooms are planned. As business and leisure travel merges, there’s no longer a need for a dedicated work desk – a dining table with handy power points can easily double as a workstation too.
Above:The lobby at the Novotel Century Hong Kong, by Aedas Interiors. “What we do is create stage sets. It’s all about theatre and drama. Within the set, are the actors – either rehearsed or impromptu. And that’s the staff,” says designer Greg Farrell.
Responding like this creates something unique. It’s hugely important in hotel design, and that avoids, hopefully, the cookie cutter hotel design. The brand story The layering of the brand story on top comes in the way the hotel operates. We keep talking about buildings, but we’re also talking about bringing hospitality and humanity back into hotels. What we do is create stage sets. It’s all about theatre and drama. Within the set, are the actors – either rehearsed or impromptu. And that’s the staff. So a lot of the brand messaging, a lot of the
brand DNA, comes from the human aspect and that’s the familiarity you start to see. Because then the building itself, the physical stage set, takes on the sense of place and location, but would also hark back to what the brand DNA is as well. So at M Social, it’s a far more casual staff uniform. The language they’re creating is different. There are wonderful little things they’re creating that will make you feel comfortable and that will become the DNA of the brand as it grows around the world.
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