Project Type: Flagship Store with Restaurant, Retail and Workshop

Location: Halmtorvet 27, Copenhagen - Denmark

Located in the Meatpacker District in Copenhagen, within an existing building, this project is the flagship experience for Materialis Danica, a project that focuses on promoting sustainability and localism. The concept store is focused on promoting the Urban Farm to Building Materials movement (Use of upcycled materials) in partnership with the Farm to Table Food Movement.

The ‘material rich’ table settings and furniture are all designed from upcycled materials and are themed differently within each space. Some of the products are created in-house and others are created by local manufacturers. When people are dining, they will be given a food menu, wine menu and materials menu. They can purchase all of the products and materials from the retail store after their meal, and they can also see people making the products in the adjoining workshop, which is open for public use.

Bricks are Denmark’s main material that are available for re-use. In this particular area, the white square tiles are rather iconic and hence have been re-used in some of our spaces.

You can watch the video about Materialis Danica by clicking here.

We were commissioned in 2018 to design the headquarters for new Football Media Company, Otro, in London, UK, as started up by David Beckham. Otro brings together 17 of the world’s superstar footballers on one media platform including Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar.

The design is based on our contemporary design principals that we explored in our future workplace research project, which includes biophilic and sustainable design principals, flexible workspace design and the integration of emerging technologies.

As a new company, there had been a limited amount of visual branding carried out prior to our commission and so we wanted the architectural design to emanate the brand through integrated branding elements and by creating the right balance between a space that felt sporty and yet sophisticated and premium at the same time.    

Tara Iti Golf Course Concierge and spa

PROJECT TYPE: Hospitality and Leisure

PROJECT LOCATION: Tara Iti, New Zealand

This project proposal is for a members only concierge and spa that has been designed as a simple and yet high quality form that sits quietly within the sand dunes created from heavy rammed earth walls. Buried within the undulating windswept forms, one cannot make out what is beyond from the entrance. 

Once inside, the space, wrapped in the warm tones of rammed earth and travertine, it opens up to an impressive vista overlooking the Tara Iti Golf Course, framed by large corten steel frames. 

Project Type: Hotel and Leisure facilities

Located 45 minutes from New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland, this natural phenomenon offers a huge opportunity for the site owners to help revitalise the once iconic and vibrant seaside town and also to provide a type of facility that is not currently available in New Zealand. Stage one, shown here, involves the development of a seaside 200 key hotel, with thermal baths and conference facilities.  Stage Two will involve the redevelopment of the existing family oriented water park and town centre.

For centuries before European settlement, indigenous Maori travelled to the therapeutic thermal waters to relax and heal themselves. Bones littered the beach, evident of tribal battles that occurred for possession of the area and its precious water. 

It was common to see up to 3000 Maori people at a time soaking in the naturally hot water by digging holes in the sand and letting water seep in.

We have designed a series of Chromatherapy tricolour pendants that have been beautifully crafted by Monmouth Glass Studio.

Project Type: Mixed Use Apartments, Offices + Restaurant

Location: Vinegar Lane, Ponsonby - Auckland

This is a new boutique development in a new medium density development. We initially explored how the wider streetscape could work successfully by putting together a series of apartments in a way that was interesting and varied, yet sympathetic to each other. For our project, located at 19 Vinegar Lane, there will be retail on the ground floor with apartments and offices above. The penthouse apartment is three bedrooms with an extensive rooftop terrace and pavilion. The light filled spaces with high ceilings and careful facade design compensate for the compact footprints that start from 40sqm. The facade screen is inspired by the elegant feather cloaks, ‘kākahu’, worn traditionally in Maori and Polynesian Culture. The brass tones and geometry give it an art deco feel. The interiors are kept fairly raw. The screens are occupant controlled and pivot open and close.  

Soho Offices

This is an adaptive re-use proposal for a new office space in London, utilising our modern workplace strategies and technologies that are part of one of our current research projects. The future of workplaces is bringing together the spaces we love into our office. The park, the cafe, the home... it's all here. Cold corporate offices are becoming a thing of the past.  New office spaces have less and less permanent fixtures and are increasingly flexible, however, achieving adequate acoustic variation and privacy are key to making this type of space work. Newly developed translucent acoustic curtains can help with this issue. Flexible furniture and computers that can change levels and configurations, such as the Surface Studio and laptops are also key to the ultimate flexible workspace. Touch screen technology and mobile devices make the dream of a paperless office a real possibility, which frees up space and allows easy collaboration. We are also interested in exploring Biophilic design. Biophilic design can reduce stress, enhance creativity and clarity of thought, improve our well-being and expedite healing; as the world population continues to urbanize, these qualities are ever more important. We see relaxing and active spaces as another way employees can relax and keep healthy. All of this works hand in hand in conjunction with flexible hours and activity based working, along with a number of new technologies such as virtual assistants, AR + VR.

This exhibition, includes an art installation that showcases our Biotechnology and Future intelligence in Architecture research project. The original exhibition was part of the 2017 Festival of Architecture organised by the New Zealand Institute of Architects. 

We worked collaboratively with glass sculptors, Isaac Katzoff and Stephen Bradbourne from Monmouth Glass Studio to bring our exhibition to life with some impressive glass creations, including the bespoke chromatherapy pendant lights and the tequila chandelier. The glass plastic bag installation that we have used as chambers for bio-luminescent lighting was part of Isaac Katzoff's exhibition 'Weight' for Masterworks Gallery. ACE (Architecture and Civil Engineering Students Association from the University of Auckland) have organised the 'Edge of the Future' photography exhibit and AR Hololens demonstration.

Our exhibition, 'Imagining a New Future : Biotechnology and Future Intelligence in Architecture', was presented by ArchitectureNOW, Panuku and the NZIA. Thanks to AMD 360 Project Management and Construction Consulting, Man O'War wines, Sawmill Brewery and E-Research lab from the University of Auckland. 

Architectural Exhibition Team: Jo Aitken, Alice O'Brien-Gortner, Madumal Gunaratna, Sophie Crews, Daniel Christev

Thanks very much to Sarah, Graham, Kelly, Danica, Aaron, Jane and Kaushik for their help with the installation.

All photos are taken by Atelier Aitken, except for the Hololens AR photo, which has been taken by Joe Hockley.